Tails and the Chocolate Factory
by Hoverbike Girl
Summary: :Revision with extra scenes. Please read from the beginning!: It's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with a Sonic twist! Five familiar faces find hidden Golden Tickets and win the chance to visit the famous Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory.
1. Prologue: Wheels in Motion

_**Tails and the Chocolate Factory**_

By_ Hoverbike Girl_

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise or _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_. SEGA (obviously) owns the former, and Roald Dahl wrote the latter; Warner Brothers also made the movie of the same name, as well as its 1971 counterpart, _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_.

Hello, everyone! Hoverbike Girl here, checking in after a long hiatus! (Much too long...) Before I begin the fanfic, I want to run a few things by you. It won't take but a minute!

This is actually the second version of "TCF", being published to celebrate its fourth anniversary. (But it's three days late; my sincere apologies.) Four years is quite a long time ago, and since then, my writing style has changed majorly. So, for this occasion, I have updated the structure and style of a large portion of the story. At its core, the plot is still the same, but there have been some significant changes, especially to the first chapters. Also, I have added in some scenes that I actually missed in the first version. (These new chapters aren't 16, 17, and 18, though. I'll name them as we come to them.) For the sake of preventing confusion, I ask that you read the story from start to finish without skipping any chapters.

Actually, this upcoming scene is a "new chapter". Remember the beginning of the new movie, where they showed how Wonka makes his chocolate bars? That's what this one is.

Please enjoy this new spin on my fanfic, and don't hesitate to send feedback!

_~Hoverbike Girl_

xxx

Greetings to you, the lucky reader of this special Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic, from Hoverbike Girl! I shake your hand and thank you a hundred times over for choosing to view this rather interesting tale! A story of courage and character awaits you! Many surprises are hidden in the (virtual) pages of this story, just waiting for you to read them! For a while, I invite you to join me as I tell you about one lucky, humble boy, his four not-so-humble comrades, a mysterious chocolatier, and an enormous chocolate factory!

* * *

Prologue: Wheels in Motion

Something new was brewing in the great chocolate factory.

You could feel the suspense mounting behind its tall, imposing, gray brick walls, like an electric charge building just before lightning hits the spot. You could glimpse the hushed, but hurried activity beyond its tightly shut, barred gates. If you had good ears, you could hear the faint whirring and clanking of its colossal main building's inner workings. And most of all, you could _smell_ it: the rich, heavy, tantalizing scent of melting chocolate wafting out of its spires.

The mysterious chocolate factory could be seen for miles all around; its huge buildings and towering smokestacks cast a deep, intimidating shadow over the much smaller stores and streets. White smoke wafted from the tops of its lofty spires—evidence that whatever machinery was inside the factory was at work. In fact, it was hard at work, much harder than it had been in the past few months. And people were noticing. Those who walked down the streets beside the walls, past the gates, and underneath the main building's ominous shadow could sense something unknown, something unusual, stirring within.

It all began in the heart of the factory's main building, beneath its tallest, central tower. In separate silos, churned and kept piping hot, were various blends of chocolate. When the recipe was mixed and heated just right, the chocolate was diverted through warm pipes, gurgling and bubbling, into smaller vats suspended over several rows of conveyor belts. Wide, empty pans were carried along these belts, and stopped underneath the vats. The chocolate poured out from the vats through wide spigots at the bottom, in timed intervals, and settled into the pans. The supply was cut off before the steaming chocolate could overflow, and the belts moved the filled pans underneath sets of fans, to cool off the chocolate so it could begin to harden. Then the chocolate was moved along to the next stage of the process.

Further along the conveyor belts, large presses awaited the pans of cooled chocolate. They came down and stamped a design into the chocolate, so it more resembled a candy bar. Some slabs of chocolate were divided even further into eight pieces, to allow it to be broken apart like perforated paper.

Beyond the presses, the conveyor belts came to an abrupt end. But a second automated machine awaited the pans of chocolate. For each pan, a pair of handles, with three narrow fingers, caught it as it came sliding off the conveyor belt. When the pan came between them, they clasped together and rose up on a vertical conveyor made of chain, holding the chocolate tightly. Halfway up, the handles flipped it upside-down, and the top one removed the pan and tossed it off to the side. The bar of chocolate was carried the remainder of the way by one handle, and then was suddenly dropped from the very top of the conveyor.

But the chocolate bars only had a foot or two to fall, before they landed, flat side up, on metal trays. These trays were borne by small balloons that floated close by the vertical conveyor, to take the chocolate bars to their next destination. Guided gently by threadlike wires at their tops, the balloons drifted in a downward spiral, one after the other, like orderly soldiers in a march. Beneath them, the floodlights of the floor below them continued to grow larger and brighter.

The next room housed even more conveyor belts; but these came from another section of the factory, and brought something else: the paper for the chocolate bars. As the balloons passed over the belts, the bottoms of their trays suddenly opened like a trapdoor, and the chocolate bars fell and landed with soft thuds onto their papers. One layer of the paper was silver tinfoil; the other layer, regular paper, displayed the logo of the chocolate factory and the flavor of the chocolate bar—in this case, Milk Chocolate. After receiving the chocolate bars, the conveyor belts carried them further along for the next step.

But today…

Something new was brewing in the great chocolate factory.

And this was where it occurred.

In the wrapping room, a sound not often heard there echoed on the walls, and rose up above the humming of the conveyor belts and the whirring of the automated machines—the sound of footsteps on the cement floor. A short figure drifted between the conveyor belts, slowly, carefully. It avoided walking underneath the bright lights that illuminated the belts, and remained in the shadows. But sometimes, it moved close to a belt, reached up, and touched a random chocolate bar. Only then was part of it (or him?) revealed: an arm covered in a purple, velvet sleeve, with a white-gloved hand.

Five times the mysterious figure chose a random conveyor belt and chocolate bar. And each time, he placed something on the bare side of the bar: a piece of shiny, golden paper, a little smaller than the bar itself. Then his hand retreated back into the shadows. After the final time, he did not venture under the light again, and he silently watched as the chocolate bars bearing his strange gifts continued on their journey.

Further down, several automated "robots" were poised above the conveyor belts. Their bodies were metal globes, and they had eight long, narrow legs like spiders. Each leg had pincers at the end. As the line of chocolate bars approached, they came down, whirring and buzzing, and wrapped every other bar that came under them in their packaging—first the crinkly foil, and then the flashy outer paper. They also flipped the bar so the front would face up.

After that, the chocolate bars reached the end of their belts, and slid into open cardboard boxes. When each box was filled, more robot arms closed the top, taped it shut, and swiped a sticker with an address across one side. Then the boxes moved along their own conveyor belt, into another room for final inspection.

And at the end of this room, the boxes passed through open doorways protected by heavy flaps of rubber…and into the outside world.

Just beyond the exits, a row of purple delivery trucks idled at the openings, awaiting the packages. Their rear ends faced the doorways, and their rear doors were open to allow the boxes in. To accommodate the trucks, the conveyor belts actually extended out of the factory a few feet into the backs of the trucks. The boxes then slid off the belts and into the trucks, where the drivers would sort and stack them. When the trucks were filled, the conveyor belts stopped supplying the boxes of chocolate bars, and retracted back into the factory. Then metal garage doors closed over the doorways, sealing off the inside.

After a brief pause, the iron gates to the entrance of the factory creaked open. One by one, in an orderly fashion, the purple delivery trucks rumbled to life and rolled away from the receiving area, across the gravel courtyard, and through the gates, returning to the main city streets. When the last one had passed through, the gates closed back up with a sharp, firm clang.

This was the way in which Station Square's biggest chocolate factory had operated for several months now. The recipes and methods for making the factory's famous chocolate and candies were protected from public eyes by walls of security and veils of secrecy. By now, the drivers and regular passersby had become accustomed to the precise schedule.

But on this day, there were many more trucks moving in and out of the factory. More boxes of sweets were being churned out, shipped, and delivered than ever before. And no one, not even the drivers, knew why.

Something new was brewing in the great chocolate factory.

And one particular person could feel it far more than anyone else.

On that chilly, dreary afternoon, small clusters of humans walked along the street beside the chocolate factory. Some of them watched the passing delivery trucks with interest, and wondered among themselves why there were more of them on this particular day. But nobody completely stopped and stood still to admire the factory itself.

…Except for one: a yellow-orange Mobian fox.

He stood off by himself, next to a lamppost on a street corner. He was dressed in a thin jacket with a red scarf, but both were worn out too much to really be warm; he was wearing them because his thicker winter coat hadn't come in just yet. He also wore red-and-white sneakers that looked just as dirty and worn as his clothes. He frequently fidgeted and rubbed his arms to try and warm up, but his sky-blue eyes never once turned away from the massive chocolate factory. Every once in a while, he lifted his nose and took a deep sniff of the air, heavy with the scent of melting chocolate. Then he smiled, closed his eyes, and licked his lips.

Because of his short stature and his ragged clothes, no one gave him a second glance; they all thought he was just some homeless street kid. But had they looked harder, they might have noticed that the fox had not one, but _two_ tails. Still, everyone was in too much of a hurry to pay attention, and no one realized that a young hero was in their midst.

The boy himself hardly cared. He was too absorbed in the sight of the factory, and the wonderful scent of chocolate wafting down to him from its vents. And like many others, he saw the change of pace at the factory, and felt a growing restlessness in the air. But only he watched and waited for whatever was to come.

Something new was brewing in the great chocolate factory.

And it would thrust Miles "Tails" Prower into an adventure unlike anything he ever had before…

* * *

**Author's Notes**

1) Okay, so you probably noticed how I repeated a certain sentence throughout the chapter. That wasn't an accident; repetition is sometimes used as a writing technique for emphasis. If you think it got overused, let me know. (...But it might not be possible for me to fix it, because of the way I wrote the chapter...)

2) I'm a little concerned that this chapter started lagging during the chocolate-making process. Did it move too slow? Was it boring? Reviews and critiques are welcome. (No flames, please.)

3) I'll bet some of you are thinking, "Hey! What happened to the dream sequence at the beginning? I liked that!" Don't worry; that's part of the real Chapter #1, which is up next!


	2. Hard Times for Tails

**_Tails and the Chocolate Factory_**

_Part __I__: The Golden Tickets_

By _Hoverbike Girl_

**Author's Note:** Yes, folks, this is the same first chapter older readers will remember from the first version of this story. But this round, it has a new title, and it has undergone plenty of updating. No worries, though; the plot is basically the same. So, without further ado, let's really meet the hero of this parody!

* * *

Chapter #1: Hard Times for Tails

It was a clear, sunny morning, and the weather at the Mystic Ruins was perfect for flying a plane. Being the skillful and enthusiastic pilot that he was, young Tails shouldn't have been able to resist the invitation to take to the skies in his beloved biplane, the _Tornado_. But this time, as he stood in the garage and stared at the blue plane, he couldn't make himself do it. It didn't feel right to go out on a morning flight today. Something was missing—or rather, some_one_ was missing.

His regular passenger and best friend, Sonic the Hedgehog.

When he looked at the plane, he could easily picture the blue hedgehog lying casually against the tailfin with his hands behind his head, wearing a confident grin. His reassuring voice echoed clearly in the boy's head.

"_I'm just taking a little vacation, Tails. Things have been way too slow around here. I'll be back next week to go on our nature hike in the ruins, I promise…"_

Still, Tails hadn't been able to enjoy his flights without him. He missed watching Sonic walk across the top wings of the _Tornado_ and pulling off stunts to impress him. It felt pointless to go out there alone, when there was no one to enjoy it with him.

"Maybe he'll come back today," the fox said out loud, trying to sound optimistic. "Maybe he hasn't called because he can't find a phone. That's happened before."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Tails' heart gave a leap. Maybe that was Sonic right now! He ran through the shop to the front door and threw it open, an exclamation of joy on his lips.

But the cry quickly turned into one of shock.

"_Eggman?_ What are you doing here?"

The evil scientist gave him a secretive grin. "I brought you something." He stepped back to let Tails see, and the boy nearly had a heart attack.

Metal Sonic stood on the porch with a limp body in his arms.

It was Sonic.

"_No!"_ Tails screamed in horror.

Eggman only laughed with wicked glee.

* * *

"_Sonic!"_

Tails jolted upright in the middle of his scream, his eyes wide open with terror. Trembling, he looked around him and tried to catch his breath.

It wasn't bright and sunny at all; it was pitch black outside. He wasn't at the front door of his home, but in his bed, with his blanket wrapped tightly around him for warmth.

_It was only a dream,_ the fox thought, and his body relaxed, his heartbeat settling back to normal. But he shuddered. _Not a dream—a nightmare. It was horrible…Sonic…_

Untangling himself from his blanket, he got out of his bed and left his room. Another door was across the hallway from his, and he opened it. Beyond it was a blue-painted room with some sparse furniture and plenty of dirty socks scattered about. A hammock was stretched across one wall, complete with a pillow and a blanket.

But it was empty.

With a heavy sigh, Tails sat down in a corner, hugging himself and sniffling. He had desperately hoped that his best friend's absence had been part of the nightmare—that he would wake up to find him dozing in his hammock. But it had been a false hope.

Sonic had gone missing over five months ago.

The last time Tails had seen him had been on a morning much like the one in the nightmare. Restless and bored, his best friend had set out early to look for some excitement. He had promised not to be long, and that he wouldn't be late for the nature hike he and Tails were doing with some of their other friends. When two days had elapsed since his predicated date of return, Tails hadn't worried too much; he had probably found some adventure to keep him occupied.

Two weeks later, he'd found out that Sonic had never shown up at the place he had said he would be. He had visited the area himself and made inquiries, but there had been no trace of the blue hedgehog anywhere. Tails had searched for him high and low; every one of Sonic's favorite hangouts had been checked, and he had requested radio and news stations to put up bulletins to help him locate his best friend. But he had run up dry in every lead, and after two months, he had reluctantly given up, resigning himself to wait patiently for Sonic to return on his own.

But with every passing day, the knot of worry in his stomach grew. Sonic had never failed to come back before; he always kept his promises—_always_. But now, it was like he had vanished off the face of the earth.

_I should have started worrying a long time ago, when he didn't come back when he said he would,_ the boy thought miserably, pulling his knees up to his chest. _What if…what if something happened to him? Something horrible, like…like…_

The image of his mentor's lifeless body, in the hands of his enemies, flashed through his mind. Tails flinched and sucked in a breath. But when he let it out, a muffled sob burst out, and a few tears trickled down his muzzle.

Suddenly he heard the doorknob turn, and the door to Sonic's bedroom opened. A shadowy figure moved into the doorway, and a voice called out his name.

"Tails?"

Tails looked up, his spirits lifting a bit at the sound of the voice. It wasn't the voice that he longed for the most. …But it belonged to someone he trusted. Even with Sonic gone, he wasn't truly alone.

"Knuckles," he croaked.

Knuckles the Echidna moved inside the bedroom, his eyebrows furrowed with concern. "You okay? I heard you scream."

The boy's cheeks flushed under his white fur in embarrassment, and he buried his face in his folded arms. "I w-woke you up, d-didn't I? S-sorry," he mumbled.

But his friend wouldn't let him dodge the question. "You had another bad dream, huh?"

"…Yeah. B-but I don't wanna talk about it. I just want to forget it." He shuddered and turned away, to hide the haunted look on his face.

There was a pause, and then Knuckles said something unexpected. "…Would getting a midnight snack help?"

Tails lifted his head and stared at him in puzzlement. "Is there anything we don't need to save?" he asked.

"Last time I checked, we had some crackers and cheese, and there might be a little bit of milk left." He stood up and held out his hand. "C'mon. Let's get a quick bite to eat."

The fox's stomach grumbled, which pretty much settled the matter for him. With a tiny grin, he wiped his eyes and took the echidna's hand. Knuckles pulled him up, and the two left the bedroom to raid the refrigerator. A bit later, they were seated at the workshop's small dinner table, and Tails was bolting down the cracker-and-cheese sandwiches almost as quickly as he could make them.

But Knuckles passed up the chance to get a snack for himself. Instead, he only had a glass of water and silently watched his friend eat. Whenever Tails looked his way, he flashed a quick, encouraging grin; but when he was left to his private thoughts, a grim frown formed on his face.

Tails wasn't just suffering emotionally from Sonic's disappearance; it had brought some financial problems, too. Child labor laws made it clear: Tails was too young to be employed, prodigy or not. He could do errands, odd jobs, or some types of freelance work, but he couldn't get a real job. Because of it, he had been largely dependent on Sonic, who was just barely old enough to get a few small jobs here and there. Sonic didn't use a lot of money (since he had a very simple lifestyle and required little for himself), so he had given a good portion of it to Tails. So when Sonic had vanished, so had the boy's best supply of money.

Also, Sonic had been his guardian, in a sense, and without him, Tails was an orphan. At first, nobody had bothered him much about this situation, since his friends had come by often to give him support. But after two months, a human from children's social services had paid a visit to the workshop and had tried to put him into foster care. Luckily, Knuckles had gotten wind of it before it had been carried out.

At the thought of that incident, Knuckles curled his lip. He was glad he had put an end to it; the thought of the young fox being stuck in a foster home made his blood boil. After that, he had seen the need for Tails to have someone to look out for him. To the honorable echidna, it had felt wrong to use his duties as Angel Island's Guardian as an excuse to avoid the responsibility. So, without hesitation, he had volunteered to become Tails' new legal guardian (temporarily, in case Sonic did return). Even though this agreement was pretty shaky, the echidna's tough reputation had assured that he was met with minimal resistance. After signing some papers and making some arrangements on Angel Island, he had moved himself and the Master Emerald into Tails' workshop, so he could better take care of him.

But even with Knuckles rotating in between construction sites and doing menial work, they were barely making ends meet. Tails even signed up for a paper route in Station Square (one of the few jobs that he was old enough to get) that took him all over half of the city to make more money, yet it helped very little. They only bought food once a week, sometimes every two weeks, and it was always canned or microwaveable food. That wasn't filling for either of them, and they always went to bed feeling a little hungry.

Normally, because of their tight budget, Knuckles was strict about how much food they bought and ate. But tonight, he decided to make an exception. He had a theory that when Tails was really hungry, he tended to have bad dreams; and when he clammed up like he had tonight, the best way to comfort him was a midnight snack.

Heavy breathing roused the red echidna from his sober thoughts, and he looked up. Another small grin cracked his face. Tails had finished his portion of crackers and cheese; now he had his head on the table, and he was fast asleep.

Gently and quietly, Knuckles picked up the sleeping fox and carried him up the workshop stairs to the main bedroom. After setting him on the bed, he tucked him in with the blanket and turned to leave. But a drowsy whimper stopped him with his hand on the doorknob.

"Knuckles?"

He looked back, and saw Tails' sky-blue eyes watching him. "I thought you were asleep," he said.

"It's okay. …Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"…Do you think Sonic's alright?"

Knuckles cringed. But he had expected that subject to pop up at some point that night. After all, he had heard Tails scream Sonic's name. He took a deep breath, and tried to think of an answer.

"He can take care of himself, Tails. I'm sure he's fine."

The fox nodded slowly, but the fearful, worried look in his eyes didn't fade. He had heard those words several times over the past few months, and now they seemed empty. Without another word, he turned over and drifted off to sleep again.

Knuckles quietly closed the door behind him and sighed. _I guess I'd better take guard duty tonight, just in case the snack doesn't work._

He went back downstairs, but only to collect his pillow and blanket from the living room couch. Then he spread them on the floor beside Tails' room, lay down, and waited for sleep to claim him once more. But it wasn't a deep sleep he wanted; it was the kind he had used for night shifts on the Master Emerald shrine, where he could snap wide awake if he heard even the faintest sound. He wanted to be ready if Tails had another nightmare—relapses had happened before. Even if the boy didn't want to discuss his dreams, the least the echidna could do was be there for him.

_Poor kid, _he thought. _ Sonic's the one he needs, not me. …But for now, I guess I'm gonna hafta do._

* * *

While his friend and guardian dozed just outside his room, Tails lay still and quiet in his bed. But he wasn't quite asleep. He didn't like the idea of the nightmare coming back. So he tried to think of something else.

And, perhaps thanks to the light snack settling in his stomach, something did come to him.

Tails never spoke of it to Knuckles, for fear of making him feel worse about their poor condition, but there was something he desired—something he hadn't had in a long time. He desired that something almost as much as he wished for Sonic's safe return.

_Tails desired __**chocolate.**_

Chocolate had been a favorite and frequent treat in better days. Sonic hadn't hesitated to buy a chocolate bar or bag of candy if he knew his sidekick needed cheering up. Whenever the two of them had racked up another victory against Eggman, they had often celebrated by getting chocolate ice cream at a confection shop in the city. Trying out different flavors and styles of chocolate had even become a little hobby to Tails.

But with Sonic's disappearance and a lack of extra money, chocolate had become a luxury he couldn't afford anymore; he didn't even bother asking Knuckles about it. Still, the sweet tooth remained, and the desire for rich, filling, comforting sweets grew until it became maddening.

Now, Tails was tortured day and night by chocolate. Many times a week, he would pass by a candy store with display shelves stocked with delicious chocolates and candies. He couldn't help but stop, press his face against the glass, and stare at them, his mouth watering. When he would be strolling by a school district, he often saw kids wolfing down bars, and his empty stomach would grumble. Sometimes, along with his nightmares of Sonic, he had wild and strange dreams about chocolate. (Take the one with dancing chocolate bars, for example.)

But that wasn't the most torturous thing to him about chocolate. The absolute worst was that his paper route led him right past the gates of _an enormous chocolate factory. _But it wasn't just _any_ factory; it was _**Willy Wonka's chocolate factory!**_

There was no doubt that Willy Wonka was the greatest, most ingenious chocolatier the world had ever seen! The mere speaking of his _name_ was enough to make a child's eyes light up or a rival chocolate maker turn green in the face with envy! He was a _magician _with chocolate! And his talent didn't stop with chocolate; there was a whole line of miraculous candies he had created that was taking the world by storm!

It had only taken a glimpse of the gigantic factory through the closed gates and one creamy chocolate bar (a birthday present from Knuckles) for Tails to be enraptured by Willy Wonka's factory and its delicious delights. Whenever he got off work, he made regular visits to the library to read all he could about Wonka. (He didn't use the computer at his home, because he and Knuckles had to conserve their electricity.) And through old newspaper articles and journals, he was able to learn a good portion of the company's history. But Willy Wonka was well known for being a tad eccentric and reclusive, so many gaps were left in the stories, and quite a few mysteries abounded about him and the factory.

One such mystery involved the factory itself—the biggest chocolate factory in the world, fifty times bigger than any other. It used to be that Wonka had problems keeping spies from other candy companies from sneaking in disguised as factory workers and stealing his secret recipes; but as security and technology had improved, some of that had been stopped. But, about six months ago, all of the workers had suddenly been let go, and the factory had closed. A letter from Mr. Wonka to the press had stated he was closing his business temporarily, though he had never given them a reason. Sure enough, it had resumed production a month later, but the gates had remained closed; none of the workers had been readmitted, and no new ones had been hired.

So how was the factory still running and churning out chocolate and candy? Surely Wonka wasn't running it all by himself! There had to be workers! But no one went into the factory, and no one came out. The only people permitted to even enter through the gates were the drivers of the delivery trucks, and they knew nothing about what went on inside the factory. The only thing that came out was packages of chocolate, already sealed and addressed to be shipped.

It was a perplexing mystery that Tails puzzled over every time he passed by the factory or spotted Wonka bars in candy store displays. Being a curious and talented inventor himself, he was eager to understand the craft of the clever and creative Willy Wonka. Occasionally he dreamed of meeting the famed "chocolatier" himself—because he didn't know what he looked like, the image changed every time.

But what intrigued him most was the rich, wonderful smell of melting chocolate that wafted down to him from the factory's towers. Whenever he passed by the gates, he took in several long, deep sniffs of the air until he could nearly taste the chocolate on his tongue. It was the closest he could ever get to eating a real bar, since he didn't have extra money to buy one. To Tails, the smell of chocolate was the best scent in the world!

And a few times, he dared to wish, _If only I could go inside the factory and see what it's like in there!_

Little did he know that a "golden" opportunity would soon arrive, and offer the chance to fulfill that impossible wish…


	3. Wonka's Announcement

Chapter #2: Wonka's Announcement

The next morning, Knuckles woke up to the sound of a buzzing alarm. He raised his head and glared at Tails' bedroom, where a digital alarm clock was resting on a nightstand. He waited for Tails to turn it off, but nothing happened. Growling under his breath, he lifted his sore body up from his bed on the floor and lurched into the bedroom to shut it off himself. After fumbling with it, looking for the "off" button, he chose to unplug it from the wall instead.

It was only then that he fully opened his heavy eyelids, and realized that Tails was still in bed, fast asleep. Even his alarm clock hadn't awakened him. Knuckles had to shake him hard before the fox would sit up; even then, he stared at him with half-closed, slightly bloodshot eyes.

"Knuckles?" he mumbled.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead. Look at the time."

He turned his head to look at the clock, but no numbers were lit up. He blinked at the red echidna. "Why is my clock off?"

Knuckles' face turned the same color as his fur. "Uhh…oops." Hastily he plugged the clock back in, but it only showed random numbers. "Well, it was half past eight when I unplugged it."

The boy's sky-blue eyes snapped wide open, and he yelped, "Oh no! I'm gonna be late!" He sprang out of his bed and dashed down the stairs, almost forgetting his shoes. The echidna followed, and he found him getting on his jacket and wrapping his scarf around his neck. (It was around late November, and the temperatures were a bit lower than normal for Station Square, enough to warrant thicker clothes.)

"Tails, aren't you going to eat breakfast?" he asked.

The boy sighed and pointed at the kitchen's clock. "I can't. My boss hates it when I'm late, and one kid got fired for three tardy days. I don't wanna risk it."

"I don't care," he retorted firmly. "He can wait for one of his paperboys to eat." He pulled out one of the chairs at their small table and pointed at it. "Sit!"

Tails sat in the chair. He knew better than to argue when Knuckles used that tone of voice.

The red echidna went into the kitchen to fix their breakfast, muttering, "From the looks of it, we're gonna have a rough winter, and I don't plan on starving early."

For the sake of time, Knuckles heated up some soup in the microwave for the both of them; Tails, who kept glancing worriedly at the clock, would have bolted it down if it hadn't been so hot. They both finished around the same time and dashed out of the workshop to get to the train station. They got there just as the train was preparing to leave; since the staff knew them well and they were regulars, the tickets were free. They were the only passengers, and took the seats they regularly sat in. The trip was relatively short, and they arrived at the Station Square Central Station.

The front door was where the pair parted ways. Knuckles went to the site of a new warehouse (remember, he has a temporary job in construction). Tails went to the newspaper stand that sat in a street alcove (the one in Sonic Adventure). As he warily approached the stand, a young, red-haired woman in a thick green sweater appeared at the counter; when she saw him, she waved and called out a greeting.

"Good morning, Tails. You're a little late today."

Tails breathed a sigh of relief and hurried over. The woman was one of his boss's employees, and he knew her better than the others; it was likely that he wouldn't get in trouble. "Sorry, Kate, I didn't sleep too well last night," he said.

"Me neither. This cold weather is really getting to me." Kate shivered and rubbed her arms.

"Yeah. Anyway, I'd better get started. See you later."

Tails walked over to the place where his yellow bike was parked and unlocked the chains on the wheels. He wheeled the bike over to the stand and placed the bundle of newspapers Kate gave him into the basket hanging on the handlebars. With a goodbye wave to the stand, he pedaled away into downtown Station Square.

It took about fifteen minutes for Tails to reach a suburban district of the city—the main part of his paper route. He went around the neighborhoods, tossing newspapers onto the porches of the houses. Occasionally he would pass by some kids on scooters, bikes, and skateboards, and they would wave to him. After awhile he passed through the neighborhoods and turned back to the city. But a few blocks before downtown, he stopped his bike for a moment.

He was in front of a tall, iron gate; the name "Wonka" was imprinted on the arch above it, in purple letters with a green background. On the other side of the gate was a vast courtyard with gravel flooring. Eight purple trucks were lined up on either side, waiting for their loads of chocolate and candy bars. The main factory building loomed over the entire scene, its menacing shadow hanging over the lawn. Dozens of smokestacks, with white smoke wafting from their tops, rose high above the buildings, easily tall enough to compete with the skyscrapers back in downtown; the tops of some of them were even obscured by low, gray clouds.

Then Tails detected the heavy, rich smell of melting chocolate emitting from the factory. Smiling contentedly, he simply stood there, holding his nose up high and sniffing the scented air, until he heard the clock in the street square chime ten o'clock. He quickly pedaled away, but his thoughts about Willy Wonka and his mysterious factory lingered with him for as long as he could smell the chocolate.

By the time he was done with his paper route, Tails was quite tired and cold, and he took a little longer to go back to the newspaper stand. But half a block from there, he braked his bike to a stop and stared in complete bewilderment.

There was a huge crowd of humans gathered around the stand. Some people were waving dollar bills high above their heads, and others held up papers. The shouting was deafening, and the fox couldn't see Kate anywhere. He waited for the crowd to thin out before walking his bike to its stand, locking it up, and peering over the stand's counter.

"Kate? Are you here?"

"Yes I am, Tails," Kate replied as she reappeared.

"What was that all about?"

"The crowds? Well, I just got sold out of papers. Something big has really made the headlines. I was just looking at it myself."

"What is it?" Tails eagerly asked. (Although he had just delivered the same papers, they had been rolled up, and he hadn't gotten a good look at the front page.)

Instead of answering, Kate passed him her copy of the paper, _The Station Square Gazette_. He took it in his hands and read the front page.

* * *

**Wonka Factory to Be Opened to Lucky Few**

Mr. Willy Wonka, the world's greatest chocolate maker, has issued the following poster to all the newspapers and television stations in the United Federation:

_Dear people,_

_I, Willy Wonka, have decided to allow five people—__**five**__, no more, no less, human or Mobian—into my factory for a tour personally carried out by yours truly, me. After seeing the secrets of my factory, they will be given a spectacular bonus: an endless lifetime supply of my chocolate and candy! But only the ones who find my five __Golden Tickets__ will be allowed in! These five Golden Tickets are hidden under the ordinary wrappers of any of my chocolate or candy bars. They could be in any shop in any street in any town in any state—__anywhere in the entire country__—where my Wonka candies are sold! Remember, __**only **__the five winners will be allowed to see the inside of my factory! Good luck, and happy hunting!_

_~ Willy Wonka

* * *

_

For a short moment, Tails was speechless. A chance to go inside the chocolate factory…and meet the famous chocolatier himself! This announcement fulfilled his every wish about chocolate, and more!

"_Wow!"_ he gasped.

"I know what you mean," agreed Kate. "Just think about it: only _five _of those Golden Tickets in this whole country! Candy stores are going to be madhouses before long!"

"Yeah, but isn't that really smart of Mr. Wonka?" The fox's sky-blue eyes gleamed with admiration. "He's going to sell millions of chocolate bars now that everybody's hunting for the Golden Tickets!"

"Tickets to what?"

Both of them looked up at the sound of the familiar voice, and spotted Knuckles rounding the street corner. In one of his hands, he held a brown paper bag, and in the other was his hard hat. He lifted up the one with the bag to wave. "My boss sent me to get some nails at the hardware store," he explained, "and I thought I'd drop by. What's up?"

He barely got the words out before Tails practically pounced on him, still clutching his borrowed newspaper. He held it up in his friend's face and chattered excitedly about the announcement.

"Knuckles, you've gotta see this! Remember that chocolate bar you gave me for my birthday? The guy who made it, his name's Willy Wonka, and…"

With some help from Kate, he explained the whole thing to him. But the red echidna had to read the news article for himself to understand it clearly. When he was finished, he was actually interested. He let out a whistle and handed it back to him.

"That's quite a story." Then he quirked an eyebrow at his friend. "I didn't know you had such a sweet tooth, Tails."

The fox flushed in the face a little. "Wonka makes some amazing stuff. But it's a rare treat."

The enthusiastic glint was still in his eyes, and he read the article a second time, and then a third. Knuckles watched silently, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Then Kate remembered something and spoke up.

"Say, Tails, I almost forgot: it's your payday, isn't it?" The fox turned to her and nodded. "Here, let me get your money." She bent down and dug in a box concealed under the counter; when she stood back up, she had two one-dollar bills in her hand, and she gave them to him.

"Enough to buy a Wonka bar, if you want," she suggested. Then her voice took on an excited pitch. "You might even find a Golden Ticket in it! Wouldn't that be something, to rip open the wrapper and see a flash of gold inside?"

Tails' eyes sparkled, and then suddenly faded, and he shook his head. "Nah, I need some money for my bike. The pedals and chain aren't working so well. I've almost got enough for repairs."

"Can't you repair it yourself?" Knuckles asked.

"I need replacement parts, Knuckles."

"Oh."

"Besides," his head lowered even more, "I already had my chance to get a Wonka bar, on my birthday. We can't afford to spend money on a bunch of chocolate bars when we'll probably find nothing. I don't have a chance."

"Oh, don't be so glum," Kate said softly. "Don't count yourself out just yet. Maybe you'll get another shot at it. And you stand just as good a chance as anybody else at finding a Golden Ticket."

But he didn't look convinced. "Maybe. …I'm going home, guys. See ya later." With a sigh, he handed back the newspaper and walked away from the stand to go back to the train station.

Kate sighed and sat down on her stool behind the counter with her chin in her hands. Knuckles offered, "Hey, at least you tried."

"I guess so. But I feel a little rotten," the girl admitted. "He has a point. There are other kids out there who can afford to buy tons of Wonka bars every day; those are the ones who have the best chances of finding a Golden Ticket. And Tails, well…"

She fell silent, but Knuckles understood. The odds of Tails finding a Golden Ticket were about the same as sun-drenched Station Square getting a snowstorm for Christmas. With solemn, melancholy purple eyes, he watched the retreating figure of the young, dispirited fox trudge along the sidewalk.

_I miss the old Tails,_ he thought. _He used to be one happy kid; now he has to act like an adult, just to get enough money to keep living. He doesn't have time to play or be himself anymore. He wouldn't be this way if…_

The scarlet echidna cringed.

…_If Sonic was still around. Heck, I'd bet that crazy hedgehog would pull Tails into this whole Golden Ticket hunt, just for the fun of it._

Then he frowned and shook his head.

_But he's not here. And a silly piece of shiny golden paper isn't going to solve our problems. Wonka can have his Tickets; a bunch of fat, rich, spoiled brats are going to find them anyway…

* * *

_**Author's Note:** And the Golden Ticket hunt officially begins! The next chapter will reveal the first two winners, in the roles of Augustus Gloop (the fat boy) and Veruca Salt (the spoiled girl). If you know your Sonic characters, you can probably guess which two I picked for these roles...**  
**


	4. The First Two Finders

Chapter #3: The First Two Finders

To the amazement of the world, the first of Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets was found the very next day!

It all started in the morning in the Mystic Ruins. As Knuckles and Tails were getting on the train to go to work, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps rattling the wooden staircase. They instantly guessed to whom those feet belonged: their acquaintance Big the Cat. The purple feline boarded the train in the nick of time; he lumbered up to them and took the seats beside them with a goofy grin.

"G'mornin', guys."

His buddy Froggy was perched on Big's shoulder, and he also greeted them, with a lively "Ribbit!"

Tails smiled and politely returned the greeting. "Hey, Big, hey Froggy. Why are you guys going to Station Square?"

"To buy some chocolate. I _love_ chocolate," replied the cat.

"No wonder he's so fat," Knuckles muttered under his breath.

Big didn't hear him, and he added, "That Wonka guy has put some Ticket thingies in regular candy bars, too."

Tails' eyes lit up at the mention of the contest. "I heard about that! So you're going to try and find one?"

"Sure, why not?" the cat said, with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders.

Knuckles asked, "How many are you gonna get?"

Big pulled out his big wallet and counted the dollar bills inside. "I've got enough to buy twenty bars."

The echidna whistled. _Where does he get all that cash? Selling fish?_ he wondered. "That's a lot. Can you really eat all that? Or are you buying some for friends?"

The cat quickly tucked the wallet back into his belt and shook his head; a greedy glint had suddenly appeared in his normally innocent, yellow eyes. "_My _chocolate," he growled. "I don't share it! Mine!"

Knuckles held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I wasn't trying to be nosy!" Big moved a few seats away from them, and the echidna muttered, "Greedy pig. I hope he chokes on a candy bar." Tails shot a glare at him and elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Ow!"

When the train pulled into the city station, they got off and walked away to their jobs. As he was getting on his bike to deliver papers, Tails caught a glimpse of Big jogging (more like waddling) to a candy store. He shrugged, thinking little of it, and went on his route.

About one hour later, Tails was finished with the first round of deliveries, and he sat on a stool in front of the newspaper stand, drinking some hot chocolate Kate had made for him. He sipped it as slowly as he could to enjoy the creamy flavor. Just as he finished the last of it, he heard excited shouting.

"I've got it! I've got it! I've got a…what's it called again?"

Tails sat straight up and whirled around on his stool, his eyes widening. "That sounds like Big! He must've found a—"

"_A Golden Ticket! That big cat's got a Golden Ticket!"_ a woman's voice cried shrilly.

In the blink of an eye, a crowd had gathered in front of the Central Station. People were shouting, cameras were flashing, and everybody was shoving their neighbors to get closer to the steps where Big stood, slightly bewildered by all the attention. He got the impression that everybody wanted the contents of the grocery bag he held—ten Wonka bars—and clutched it with both hands, glaring defensively at the crowd. But the citizens and the reporters were more interested in the Golden Ticket that Froggy held in his mouth.

"Mr. Cat," yelled a reporter, "how did you manage to find the first Golden Ticket?"

The only response everybody got was, "It's _my _chocolate! You can't have it!"

"Ribbit! Ribbit!" croaked Froggy, who was excited by all the commotion. He nearly dropped the Ticket, but his sticky tongue held it in place.

Eventually Big managed to get on a train back to his home in the Mystic Ruins, but not without the throng of reporters and curious citizens following him. The crowd continued to pursue him through the Mystic Ruins until they came to the boundary of the unexplored jungle that was Big's home. Even the reporters didn't dare to go in, and all of them turned back.

All except for Tails, who knew this place well. He followed the winding trails to Big's wooden house, if you could call it a house; it had no real walls or rooms, just a roof. The cat was sitting on his bed unwrapping the rest of his bars and eating them in three bites. Froggy was sitting on a nearby table, watching his pal eat.

Tails crossed the stream to the house and said, "Hi again, Big."

The feline was startled and, upon seeing the fox, grabbed his bars and growled, "Go away! It's _my_ chocolate!"

"I don't want your chocolate. I just wanna know how you found the Golden Ticket. Do you still have it?"

This time, Big understood and calmed down. He replied, "I just bought some bars from the store and went in an alley to eat 'em. The tenth one had the Ticket in it. I've got it in my wallet." He patted his belt where the wallet was hidden.

"Mind if I have a look at it?"

But Big got that greedy look again. "You can't see it! It's _my _Ticket! You'll take it from me!"

"No I won't! I'm just curious!"

"Go away! It's _**my**_ Ticket!" The cat reached for a fishing rod to use it as a weapon, but Tails ran away before he even got up off the bed.

As soon as he was out of the jungle, Tails said, "Gosh, Knuckles was right; Big _is _greedy…about chocolate anyway."

The next day, the finding of the first Golden Ticket was all over the news. One reporter had snapped a photo of Big on the train station's steps, and it was printed on the first page. Tails asked Kate if he could keep one, and he showed it to Knuckles on his lunch break. The sight of the cat greedily holding his bag made the echidna shake his head.

"If Big is allowed into that factory, he'll eat everything unless he bursts first," he said. "His pigging out will cost him someday, Tails; I'll bet my sack lunch on it."

* * *

Big's discovery of the first Golden Ticket sent the entire country into a chocolate-buying frenzy. Kids brought their piggy banks and money jars to candy stores and gave the shopkeepers every penny in exchange for Wonka bars. Criminals held up stores and filled up their sacks with as many candy bars as they could carry; the shoplifting got so bad in some places that security guards were posted in stores. Millionaires ordered hundreds of boxes of bars and hired poor people to rip the wrappers open. Advertisements for bars seemed to be the only ones on TV, and the news was all about the contest, and very little else.

Finally, after five days of anxious waiting, the second Ticket was found on the night of November 31st.

Knuckles and Tails, both worn out from the day's work, had fallen asleep the moment their heads had hit their pillows. This time, the former was sprawled on the living room couch, snoring like a freight train. The latter was curled up in a furry ball, with his tails wrapped around him like an extra blanket.

But they were in for a rude awakening.

_Bang, bang!_

Tails made a frightened yipping sound and accidentally rolled off his bed. After untangling himself from his blankets, he hurried down the stairs to see what was making such a racket. Before he got to the first floor, the sound came again.

_Bang, bang!_

_It's the front door,_ he thought. _Someone's knocking on it. But who would visit us so late at night?_

The orange fox skipped the final step and bounded over to Knuckles' couch. The echidna was already up, and his purple eyes were bloodshot and angry. With a gulp, Tails hurried to the door to open it before his friend did. "Coming!" he called out, and opened the door wide. Then he froze and blinked in surprise.

A familiar, winged figure stood on the porch: Rouge the Bat.

At the sight of his rival, Knuckles curled his lip, and his eyes narrowed. "I know bats are nocturnal, but this is ridiculous! Whaddya want, bat girl?" he snapped.

Rouge grinned at his outburst. "Temper, temper, cranky-pants. I just came by to let you know that I won't be pestering you for your silly old Master Emerald anymore."

_That_ woke him up for sure. He and Tails stared at her with eyes as wide and round as saucer plates, and their mouths fell open.

She smirked even more. "You heard me right. It's because I found something even more valuable."

"You did _what?"_ Knuckles blurted out.

"Do I really need to repeat myself?" She rolled her eyes. "What's the matter, don't believe me? Well, see it for yourself! _Voila!" _She pulled something out of her pocket with a dramatic flourish.

At first, in the darkness, it only looked like a piece of thick paper, like the kind coupons were printed on. But Tails flicked on the porch light, and instantly, the paper shimmered and flashed; the fox gasped.

It was a _Golden Ticket_!

Knuckles sputtered, "What the…! How did you…! I thought you didn't like chocolate!"

"Not the cheap stuff," Rouge replied with a sniff. "Gourmet bakery chocolate is what I prefer. But when I heard about Wonka's contest, I decided I wanted a Golden Ticket."

She lowered her eyelids until they were half-closed, and a smirk spread across her face until her fanged teeth showed.

"And when I want something, honey, I don't rest until I have it," she added, in a low, seductive purr.

_That's why I don't buy the whole thing about her giving up on the Master Emerald,_ thought the scarlet echidna with a scowl.

When he made no reply to her, the ivory bat glanced at Tails to see his reaction. The young fox was staring at the Golden Ticket in her hand, mesmerized by its shine. She grinned even more, and waved it back and forth between the two. Tails' eyes followed it wherever it went.

"Want to touch it?" she asked him.

He perked up, and a hopeful smile lit up his face. "Sure!"

But she quickly jerked her hand out of his reach. "Too bad; I'm not letting go of this beauty. You'll have to get your own, foxboy."

Tails crumpled instantly, his sky-blue eyes shimmering with held-back tears. This was worse than seeing someone eating a chocolate bar—a hundred times worse.

Knuckles saw it all, and immediately his face flushed deep red with rage. He gently pushed his friend back and moved in front of him, teeth bared. "Leave Tails alone," he snarled, holding up his fists. "If you're going to rub that thing in somebody's face, do it to me."

Sensing it wouldn't be wise to tease the boy any further, Rouge took a step back and let him be. But she kept her attention on her rival. "Suit yourself, Mr. Sensitive."

"And why in the heck did you come down here at midnight to bother us, besides your crazy sleeping schedule?"

"I know you get angry easier in the middle of the night. You're cute when you're angry."

Knuckles couldn't think of an answer to that, so he just slammed the door in her face. He heard giggling, and he did his best to ignore it. That is, until he realized that Tails was snickering. "Don't you start too!" he fumed. But inwardly, he was relieved to see him recovering from the bat's cruel teasing.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it." Tails tried to say it with a straight face, but he wasn't doing so well.

Suddenly, there was more knocking at the door. While Tails stared at it in puzzlement, Knuckles turned around and snapped, "Rouge, you've made your point, so buzz off!"

But they got a different voice than before; it was a male's, and the low, serious tone was familiar.

"Rouge is gone. It's just me."

After exchanging bewildered glances, Tails opened the door and Knuckles flicked on the porch light. "Shadow?" they both exclaimed.

The black hedgehog grunted and stepped inside the workshop. "Mind if I come in?"

"If you've come with Rouge about the Golden Ticket, then beat it," the echidna retorted hotly.

"Not exactly. I'm asking if I can stay here for a while. Rouge is gonna call the paper, and I don't like crowds. And," he winced and bent over slightly, "I'm a little sick."

Tails became concerned. "Sick? It's not like you to get sick, Shadow."

"I can explain. You see, Rouge didn't just buy the candy bars."

"She stole them?" guessed Knuckles.

Shadow grinned, which was extremely rare. "Naw, she didn't steal 'em…I don't think. She actually sold off some of her jewelry and took some assignments from the President to earn enough money for hundreds of thousands of those Wonka bars."

Knux whistled. "Rouge sold her jewels? Never though she had it in her to do that."

"Neither did I. She borrowed a warehouse with the money and had her order for the chocolate brought there. I asked her how she was going to unwrap all that candy while she was on her missions, and she told me she had someone else to do it for her, free of charge."

Tails knew who it was by the look on Shadow's face. "You."

The hedgehog scowled and lowered his head. "Me. She ordered me to do it or she would kick me out of my apartment."

"Your apartment?" said Knuckles with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yeah. She got two apartments in this 'condo' thing and let me have one. Anyway, she wanted me to have half of the bars unwrapped by the time she got back. When I missed her quota by only a little, she blew up at me and forced me to eat some of the bars. She was literally shoving them down my throat!"

Knuckles shook his head in sympathy. "I'm glad I'm not living next door to her."

Shadow continued. "Then all of a sudden she screamed 'cause she saw one of those Golden Tickets lying in the trash pile, and then she scolded me for missing it and throwing it away. I'm glad she found it; now she won't keep ranting and raving about it. If I hear 'I want a Golden Ticket' one more time, I'll go insane!" Suddenly he groaned and clutched his stomach. "Oh man, where's a bathroom?"

Tails showed it to him just in time. It took fifteen minutes for Shadow to get rid of the chocolate Rouge had force-fed him. When he was finished tossing his cookies, he lay on the couch and fell asleep instantly. The fox and echidna shook their heads in sympathy.

"You know, that really wasn't fair of Rouge," Tails muttered. "She didn't find the Golden Ticket on her own. She got Shadow to do all the hard work for her."

Knuckles snorted. "So he should be the real winner by rights, eh Tails? You know he could care less about chocolate, especially after being force-fed a dozen bars of it."

The fox shrugged. "I guess."

"Still, you have a point. But that's batgirl for ya: a sneaky thief. I hope she gets what's coming to her one of these days, and I wanna be there when it happens."

With tiny smiles, the two walked up the stairs to go to the main bedroom—Tails offered for Knuckles to crash in the office chair he had in the room, since Shadow had the couch. Their sleep went undisturbed for the rest of the night.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Okay, so a couple people have pointed out before that Big and Rouge are kinda out of character. And I'll admit it; I did tweak them for the story. But let's remember, this is a parody, and the other four Golden Ticket winners (besides our hero) are supposed to be "brats". These two were the best Sonic characters to fit into the roles of Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salt.

In the next chapter, we get to see the characters chosen for Violet Beauregarde (the gum-chewing girl) and Mike Teevee (the TV boy)! If you think about it, they're pretty obvious too...


	5. Two More Tickets

Chapter #4: Two More Tickets

Much like the first finding, Rouge got her share of fame and news coverage. Big faded into yesterday's news, and the story of how the latest lucky winner found the second Golden Ticket (distorted by her, without any mention of Shadow) was plastered all over the papers for days. One news anchor claimed that, at this rate, all five Tickets would be found within three weeks.

But five days came and went without any more discoveries. People were blazing through Wonka bars at an even more frenzied pace than before, thanks to Big and Rouge. But the third Golden Ticket seemed to be the most elusive one so far.

And then, a week after the second Ticket was found, the third appeared.

It was in the evening, after rush hour; Tails and Knuckles, finished with their jobs for the day, were sitting in the living room watching a weather report. Suddenly the kitchen phone rang, and Tails went to pick it up. When he returned a few minutes later, he had a smile on his face.

"What? What is it?" asked Knuckles.

"That was Amy, I think, and she wants us to come to her apartment for dinner. She has a special announcement."

"What announcement? And whaddya mean you _think _it was Amy?"

"She didn't tell me what it was. And it was Amy's voice, I'm sure, but it sounded like she was chewing on some gum."

"Gum? Since when did she start that habit?"

"I dunno, but I know one thing for sure: I'm going. Amy's a good cook."

The mention of food made Knuckles forget about the gum issue, and he too raced to get his coat. They were at the door of Amy's pink-themed apartment in twenty minutes flat. Cream the Rabbit answered the door and politely invited them to come inside. When she had closed the door, she turned to them with a worried expression.

"There is something I need to talk to you about," she said, nervously interlacing her fingers.

"What's the problem?" asked Tails.

"Well, ever since Mr. Sonic disappeared, Amy has been chewing gum all day and every day," she replied.

"So she _was _chewing gum when she was on the phone with me."

"I was the one who suggested it. I said, 'Why don't you chew gum when your thoughts about Mr. Sonic get out of control?' and she's been doing it ever since. Please don't be mad at me."

"You were trying to help," he assured her. "We're not mad, right, Knuckles?" He looked at his companion, wanting him to answer.

Knux just shrugged and said, "Sure, I guess. Anyway, what kind of announcement is Amy gonna give?"

The little girl bit her lip. "Um, I don't know. She wouldn't tell me. She just said she was inviting her best friends over for some dinner together. I guess the announcement is to make everybody curious and get them to come over."

"Clever tactic. Where is she anyway?"

A voice down the hall shouted, "Cream! Is somebody here? Why didn't you tell me?" Then Amy Rose appeared, dressed in her usual clothes; but there was one thing different about her: she was chewing furiously on a piece of gum.

"Hi, guys! Glad you could come!" she greeted them, chewing in between her words.

Even though the sight of the girl chewing on gum was disturbing, the guests kept on their politeness as best as they could, or Tails at least. "Thanks for inviting us, Amy," he said.

Knuckles was quick and to the point. "What's on the menu tonight? I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" (Cream and Cheese gave him bewildered looks; they weren't familiar with that figure of speech.)

"That's a surprise!" was the reply. "Just make yourselves at home and we'll wait to see who else comes!"

With a resigned sigh, Knuckles sat on a couch by a TV and started checking the channels. Tails sat by him and looked through some magazines by the couch instead. Cream and Cheese found a deck of cards and played Go Fish.

Ten minutes went by, and then someone knocked at the door. It turned out to be Big, who gave both girls a bear hug. Knuckles scooted over to make room for him on the couch, and Tails got up to look at the books Amy had. Most of the books were romance novels, but there were some scrapbooks at the top shelf. One in particular interested the fox, and he pulled it out to get a better look. It looked like a plain blue binder, but the front was covered in pink and red heart stickers. He opened to the first page and found out why.

He found himself staring at a huge newspaper article about Station Square's recovery from the infamous flood incident known as "The Great Chaos". The story was about the people who had helped make Station Square inhabitable again. The article, although very lengthy, was complete; only a picture from the same paper was cut out. And it was of, according to the news article, "the most amazing and heroic of them all."

"Sonic." Tails sadly touched the smirking picture. "I wish you would come back home."

"I miss him too," said a voice. The fox turned around to see that it was Amy. She sighed and wiped a tear out of her eye. "If only I knew where he was."

"Yeah," was all the boy said, in fear of choking up in front of everybody if he said more.

Loud banging brought a halt to their talk, and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the front door. Two familiar voices could be heard from behind it.

"Why did you have to drag me here, Rouge? You know I hate parties."

"Quit your whining, Shadow! That Amy has got something up her sleeve, and I want to know what it is!"

Knux groaned, and then he shot a glare at Amy. "You just had to invite _them_, didn't you?"

The pink hedgehog just ignored him and let Shadow and Rouge in. "You're just in time! The food's almost ready!"

Rouge placed her hands on her hips and demanded, "First, I want to know what announcement you were going to make."

There was silence in the room for a moment, and then a timer in the kitchen rang. Amy was literally saved by the bell! "Cake's ready to eat!" she said happily, and rushed out of the room.

"Cake? Must be really important," Knuckles said (to no one in particular).

Cream had a dreamy look on her face. "And where there's cake…"

Cheese finished, "Chao chao chao!"

"Yes, Cheese. _Ice cream!"_ The pair dashed into the kitchen to find the hiding place of their favorite frozen treat.

A few minutes later, the table was set for eight (Cheese had a high chair), and Amy passed out slices of cake and scoops of ice cream—vanilla or chocolate. Of course, Shadow refused any food, and just wanted a glass of water. The boys finished first.

"Delicious, as your cooking always is," commented Knuckles as he set down his fork.

Tails added, "It was great! Thanks! If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have Shadow's piece." But when he looked at the cake plate, the piece was gone. "Hey! Where'd it go?" Then he noticed a new set of cake crumbs on Big's face. "Aw, man."

The feline licked the crumbs up, burped, and said, "Good eatin'."

Knuckles frowned and muttered, "What a glutton."

Rouge put down her fork and once again demanded to Amy, "Now, what about that announcement? You better not have tricked me…"

The pink hedgehog held up her hands in surrender. "All right, I guess I can't put it off any longer."

In one quick, surprising motion, she scooted her chair backward, bounded out of her seat, and whipped her arm out over the table. But something was now gripped in her hand. As she waved it about, a familiar golden flash blinded the guests.

"I found a Golden Ticket!" Amy squealed.

Tails perked up instantly, his eyes glued to the shiny paper in her hand; Knuckles only blinked in shock. Cream and Cheese cheered and bounced up and down in their seats, and Big offered a deep and hearty "Hurray!" Rouge and Shadow, however, weren't so thrilled; the bat's eyes narrowed resentfully, wondering how a bubbly, ditzy girl like Amy could have obtained the same special prize she had.

Shadow growled, "It took me more than a week to find one for Rouge!" But this only earned him a sharp elbow in the ribs from said bat.

"So _that'_s why you laid off the gum for a while!" exclaimed Cream. "I thought you were done for good!"

"I found it when I got back from a shopping trip at the grocery store," Amy explained, tucking the precious Ticket back in her pocket. "I bought their last chocolate bar, too! Lucky me! And now I'm right back on gum! I called the press, and they're sending out a reporter to interview me tonight. I just decided to throw a party with you guys before he got here."

At the mention of a reporter—possibly more than one—Shadow frowned and made it quite clear that he wasn't going to stay and wait for them to arrive. The others weren't so comfortable about it either, so everybody but Cream and Cheese left, and just in time; a swarm of news vans pulled up in front of the apartment building as they left.

When they got back to the workshop and turned the TV back on, Tails and Knuckles were surprised to see that the news stations were already broadcasting the interview with Amy; Cream (and Cheese) even got a brief chance to be on camera, and she waved and said hello to her mother.

With an irritated frown, Knuckles shut off the TV. "That contest is really starting to grind on my nerves. C'mon, Tails, let's call it a night."

Tails obediently went up to his bedroom. But as soon as he heard his guardian snoring on the couch, he turned the TV in his room on (making sure to keep the volume low), and listened raptly to the contest updates.

_I think I can understand why Amy picked up that gum-chewing habit,_ he thought as he watched his friend grinding away on a stick of gum. _Still, that can't be very healthy for her in the long run. She could get herself in a sticky mess. I hope her jaw gets tired of it before then, for her sake…

* * *

_

The next morning, the news continued on the subject of Amy and her Golden Ticket for those who had missed the night report. Once again, Tails and Knuckles were watching, the latter impatiently grumbling for the weather report. But halfway through said report, the anchor received a slip of paper and interrupted the weatherman for an important bulletin. He was ecstatic.

"The fourth Golden Ticket has been found just this morning! The finder is yet another Mobian, six-year-old Charmy Bee."

Tails gave a start and jumped to the edge of his seat. "Charmy? From the Chaotix Detective Agency?" he exclaimed.

When he bounced, though, he jarred Knuckles, who was taking a sip from a glass of water. Instead, a lot of the water ended up on his face. "Hey, watch it!" he snapped.

The news switched over to a camera that was inside a run-down apartment crowded with cardboard boxes full of odds and ends. Reporters were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in the living room/office; a few of the early-birds were crammed on the Mobian-sized, moth-eaten sofa. At the other end, a young honeybee wearing a bright-orange jacket and a helmet was sitting in front of a small TV screen and playing a 2D 16-bit video game. (A/N: Think of an older console like a SEGA Genesis or SNES. I don't think the Chaotix could afford a current-gen console; do you?)

"Can't you guys see I'm busy?" the insect snapped, when the reporters' voices got too loud. "I'm trying to win this game here!"

"That's him, all right," said Knux with a roll of his eyes.

There was someone else besides Charmy and the reporters in the room. Out of the way of the humans, Espio the Chameleon was leaning against the wall, silently watching the crowd with a faint look of irritation on his face. When he was asked about how the fourth Ticket was found, he just shrugged, pointed at Charmy, and replied, "I dunno. Ask him."

After the bee had blasted away all the aliens in the level, the game took a quick break to rack up his points. Charmy turned and quickly answered, "I wanted Espio to get me a game at a pawn shop, but he took me to the candy store next door and brought me a chocolate bar instead. I just opened it up and found the Ticket in it! Oh! Here's Level 8! Can't talk anymore! Gotta beat Vector's high score!" He resumed playing the game, and no one, not even Espio, could get anymore out of him.

After checking a notepad, one reporter asked Espio, "Where's your partner, Vector the Crocodile?"

"He's out of town working on a case, I think," was the cool reply. "I'm in charge of this place for the moment. And now, if you don't mind, I want all of you to leave."

The news cut back to the anchor, who said, "That means there is only _one _Golden Ticket left! Who will find it? We can only wait and see…"

Knuckles shut off the TV. "So Charmy got the fourth one. If Wonka has any TVs or video games in that factory, he'd better hide 'em."  
"It's funny," Tails remarked. "So far all the winners are people we know. I wonder if some other friend of ours might find the last one."

The echidna snorted. "Lightning doesn't strike in the same place _that_ often. Besides, this wild goose chase will be at its craziest now. There's no telling who's gonna find the last Ticket."

The boy's ears drooped slightly. It was true; the chances of him finding a Golden Ticket were even slimmer than ever…

"Well, at least it'll be all over when somebody finds it," Knux went on. "I'm really sick and tired of all this hype."

"It won't really be over. There's still the visit to the factory, the meeting with Willy Wonka himself, the tour…"

The red echidna was about to make a scornful remark about Wonka; but when he looked over at his friend, he stopped himself. The orange fox's head was resting on his chest, and he was staring down at his growling stomach with a wistful, despairing look.

Knuckles sighed. "Tails, let's just get our breakfast and be on our way, all right?"

"…Okay, Knuckles." He slid off the sofa and trudged over to the kitchen to prepare a packet of instant noodles.

His friend watched him, and quietly blew out another frustrated sigh. _Why is he still wrapped up in this Golden Ticket business? He knows he doesn't stand a chance of getting one. I know he'd love to meet that Wonka guy and see the inside of that factory—what kid wouldn't? But it's all a pipe-dream!_

…_Well, he'll get over it when it ends. That last Ticket will go to some nasty little brat who doesn't deserve it, and he'll move on…

* * *

_**Author's Note:** "A nasty little brat"? We readers know better than that, don't we? (wink)

So Amy and Charmy are Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teevee! Kudos to whoever correctly guessed them and the previous two winners! (Though I didn't really make it that hard.) And we all know who the next winner is going to be...

Oh, and before we move on, I want to tack on one last note. In the previous version, I got a review from **Ice the Rabbit** pointing out that I didn't describe Amy's and the Chaotix's apartments very much. I tried to correct it a bit in this second version, but I wasn't very successful. If it helps, what I had in mind for each place was Amy's room from _Sonic Battle_ and the Chaotix's office in their first cutscene from _Sonic Heroes_.


	6. Another Shot at a Golden Ticket

**Author's Note:** Okay, folks, this is one of the new chapters I mentioned! Anybody remember in the book and movies how Charlie got a Wonka bar for his birthday and one from Grandpa Joe? Well, in the original version of this story, I missed those scenes; this time, I combined them into one chapter (because it would just be repetitive to have two similar scenes). So, please enjoy this new addition!

* * *

Chapter #5: Another Shot at a Golden Ticket

Another three days went by, and there was no sign of the final Golden Ticket in any of the cities and provinces all over the country. People were getting impatient, and the streets of many cities were littered with the wrappers and foil of Wonka bars. Networks and newspapers tried contacting Willy Wonka himself for comments about the contest, or even hints to the last Ticket's possible location; but, as many expected and were disappointed to learn, there was no reply.

One day, while walking from the site of his latest job, Knuckles paused in front of an electronics store to watch the TVs on display. He wasn't surprised to see that the talk show on the channel was about the contest. The main speaker had something interesting to say, though, in response to a skeptical guest.

"Sure, we haven't had word of a fifth finder. Yes, there's no sign of that last Golden Ticket anywhere. Of course, every lead the networks have followed has dried up. But if there were only four Tickets, Wonka would have said four! And he says there are five, so_ it must be out there!_ Days, weeks, maybe even _months_ might pass before anybody finds it! But there is _still_ the chance that this missing Ticket will be found!"

_Still a chance? Sure there is: one in ten million,_ the echidna thought, curling his lip. But then something struck him between the eyes.

"No word", "no sign", "dried-up leads", and "missing"—he had heard those words used before, for a different kind of search.

The search for Sonic.

He hadn't thought very much about Sonic ever since the Wonka Golden Tickets had been sent out. Now he wondered if Tails had thought about him less, too. Maybe this contest was distracting him from thoughts about his missing best friend. The nightmares _had_ stopped since the whole contest had started…

And if this theory was true, was the echidna's approach to the crazy contest all wrong?

Knuckles turned away from the store window and bit his lip. _Maybe I should be encouraging him to hope in __something__, _he thought. _If looking for a Ticket keeps his mind off Sonic, maybe it's worth the trouble._

His ears picked up the sound of a ringing bell, like the kind you hear when you walk in a gift or secondhand shop. He looked up to find the source, and his eyes locked on the first moving door he saw; then he studied the sign in the display window. His eyebrows rose, and slowly, an idea formed in his head—a crazy idea. He reached into his jacket pocket and heard the clink of loose change.

He groaned and looked up at the gloomy, overcast sky. "I must be out of my mind, going on a wild goose chase like this," he muttered. "But it's for Tails, so…"

Sucking in a deep breath, as if he was doing to dive underwater, he shot across the intersection (on a red light, of course, when the crosswalk stated it was safe) to the other side of the street. Hardly stopping, he rushed into the shop on the corner. The bell clanged loudly as the door slammed behind him.

Above the door, the shop's name was printed in red-and-white, candy-cane-like letters: "The Candy Corner". And a sign hung in its single window above a display of lollipops: "Wonka Bars Sold Here".

* * *

Later that afternoon, Tails returned to his workshop with his bike, which was in need of repairs; he had blown out a tire halfway through one of his routes, and he had been forced to walk and fly the rest of the way. Sore and out of breath, he left the bike on the porch and went inside. He planned on taking a nap until Knuckles got home for dinner; but when he entered the living room, he stopped short and blinked in puzzlement.

Knuckles was already there. He was pacing in front of a window with a frown of deep thought. His arms were folded behind his back, and there was a small, crumpled, brown paper bag clasped in his hands. The minute he heard the boy's footsteps on the wooden floor, he halted and looked up at him.

"Hey, Tails," he said, swallowing.

The fox cocked his head to the side. "Knuckles? What are you doing back here so early?"

"The supervisor said the weather would get bad in the evening, so he let us off early."

"…And what's in that bag?"

The echidna gulped again. "Um…" He collapsed in a chair and set the bag on an end table. "Here. It's, uh…it's for you."

Still wearing a confused look, Tails walked up to the table, picked up the bag, and opened it. It was too dark for him to see what was inside, so he reached in. The moment his fingers closed around a small, rectangular object, his eyes widened, and his hand shot out of the bag.

In his hand was a Wonka chocolate bar.

"'Wonka's Nutty Crunch Surprise'," he read the label on the wrapper out loud in an awed whisper.

Knuckles coughed. "I thought 'surprise' might be a lucky word. You know, for finding a…"

He didn't need to finish; they both knew what he meant. But Tails couldn't help blurting out, "I thought you hated the contest!"

"The hype, mostly. But, err…there's nothing wrong with trying it out once, is there? I figured, well," he paused and shuffled nervously in his chair, "you've been working hard, so you deserve a little treat. And, uh, you ought to have a fling at getting the last Ticket."

Tails didn't say anything. He looked down at the Wonka bar in his hands, and ran his fingers across its shiny surface. The wrapper, and the foil underneath, made sharp, pleasant-sounding crackling noises under his delicate touch.

This was it. He really had a chance at finding the fifth Golden Ticket.

Knuckles fidgeted a little more. "But you shouldn't get your hopes up too much, you know," he stammered. "There's only one left. It's probably not in there. You understand that, right?"

"…Right." The fox swallowed a lump in his throat, shut his eyes, and suddenly held out the bar to his friend. "Knuckles, you can open it."

The echidna stared back at him with wide, bewildered eyes, and he leaned back, holding his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, time out. I can't."

"But you bought it!"

"Yeah, for _you_, kid. I'm giving _you_ the chance. You're the one who wants it more than anybody in the world, right? You open it."

"…You're sure?"

"A hundred percent."

"…Okay."

"…And just remember, no matter what happens, you'll still have the chocolate. Right?"

"Sure."

The two friends' eyes met, and the young fox was surprised by the animated glint in his guardian's eyes. For the first time, he realized Knuckles was just as excited about this opportunity as he was, even though he was trying his best to be calm.

Tails breathed in, and let it out slowly, but it didn't calm his racing heart. Looking down at the Wonka bar, he noticed his hands were faintly shaking. He bit his lip and fought to calm the butterflies dancing in his empty stomach.

Knuckles had tried to set him up for a disappointment, and he too was steeling himself for no Golden Ticket. But a part of him still clung desperately to hope. Yes, the chance of finding a precious Golden Ticket wrapped in the foil with the chocolate was small—very small. But this single candy bar had as much chance as any other of having the prize.

_The chance was there. It __**had**__ to be there…_

Slowly, carefully, Tails gripped the top label and slid it off the foil. His pricked ears listened intently to the sound of crackling. He was listening for a difference in the noise to any normal bar…for the crackling of _something other than the foil…_

He set the label on the end table and looked at the wrapper. He was tempted to rip it apart right then and there, but he respected the craftsmanship, the careful wrapping of the chocolate bar too much to do that; it was like a Christmas gift with pretty wrapping paper you didn't want to tear up. So he studied each folded end, trying to decide which one to open.

Suddenly Knuckles broke in on the tense silence. "Tails, we should just get this over with."

The gruff impatience in his voice was muted, but the fox easily heard it. With another gulp and a nod, he chose to do both ends of the bar at the same time. He lifted up each end of the foil and unfolded it until he could see each end of the chocolate bar itself.

So far, no sign of gold. But maybe he hadn't opened it up enough.

Finally, Tails couldn't bear it any longer. Gripping one end near the middle of the wrapper, he flipped it over. The foil gave a sharp crack, and onto the end table, there fell…

…A chocolate bar. Nothing more.

There was no Golden Ticket inside.

Both the fox and the echidna let their breath out in a great whoosh. The latter relaxed in his chair, and a little smile cracked his face.

"Well, that's that."

But Tails said nothing at first. His shoulders were slumped, and his sky-blue eyes were moist. Even though he had known the chance was just too small, the disappointment still hurt.

"…Tails?"

He looked up to meet Knuckles' concerned, purple eyes. Taking a shaky breath, he tried to smile and see the humor of the situation.

"Well, those Golden Tickets probably make the chocolate taste bad, anyway," he said.

Knux gently picked up the chocolate bar and held it out for the fox to take. "Here," he said softly. "Enjoy the treat."

Tails reached out to take it, but as his fingers closed on one end of it, he paused to think. Then, with a determined look, he tightened his grip and pulled down on it until half of the bar cracked off.

"Not unless you enjoy it with me. I owe you that much, for giving me another chance."

The echidna chuckled. He could see his friend wasn't going to back down on this. He retracted his arm, still gripping a piece of the chocolate bar. "Deal."

With small smiles, the two shared the Wonka's Nutty Crunch Surprise in silence. The chocolate, complemented by peanuts, tasted heavenly, warm, and rich in their mouths. But Tails couldn't help wishing it was tainted, by the precious gold of the last Golden Ticket…


	7. Winter Hardships

**Author's Note:** This is also one of the "new chapters"; it parallels a chapter in the original "Charlie" book, called "The Family Begins to Starve". So basically we get to see Tails' and Knuckles' poor situation, and some pretty bad weather, in more detail. The last third of it should start to look more familiar; I cropped it from the chapter that comes after this one. (Yes, the one where you-know-who finally gets the Golden Ticket! We're almost there; just one more chapter to go!)

* * *

Chapter #6: Winter Hardships

By the middle of December, the Golden Ticket hunt was becoming more hectic; people were more desperate than ever for the final Ticket—their last chance to become one of the fortunate five to partake in the grand prize. Two old women were seen fighting over a box of Wonka bars, and soon an entire crowd was involved; such fights were erupting in supermarkets, confection shops, ice cream parlors—basically wherever it was known that Wonka candies were sold. The rich were buying up boxes by the hundreds of thousands for just as much money in auctions, and crimes, all related to the contest, doubled or even tripled.

Soon the demand had far outnumbered the supply. Stores ran out of Wonka products and had to deal with mobs of angry customers while trying to get their hands on more chocolates. Sold-out signs were used to fend them off, and some businesses even closed up because they had no more Wonka bars to sell.

But close to Christmas, Station Square was suddenly besieged by bad weather—of all things, a freak snowstorm! For one entire night, when the temperature was below the freezing point, the snow fell constantly and lasted through the morning. It was the wet type of snow that works best for packing snowballs or making snowmen, much to the delight of children (and adults who were children at heart); whole neighborhoods often organized snowball wars, snowman contests, and such festivities.

Unfortunately, the snow was also the kind that stubbornly clings to everything, makes roads icy, and lingers for a good, long time; this presented some dangers to the ill-prepared coastal city. Bodies of water, except for the ocean, froze over; trees fell over or broke under the strain of snow. Pipes froze, telephone wires snapped, and power would go down from time to time. Many streets, schools, and businesses were forced to close until snowplows could be employed to clear the roads.

In addition to the wet snow, there came a harsh, winter gale with a sharp, freezing bite. It blew relentlessly for days and days, piling up snowdrifts and causing even more damage. In the more open regions, it turned into a full blizzard—an even bigger hazard.

And as the weather became colder and the snow persisted, the Wonka Golden Ticket contest faded from memory. People became more concerned about keeping their homes warm, how soon they could get back to their jobs, and how to keep food on the table. Most didn't have to worry too much about such things, since many could afford to provide those comforts.

But Tails and Knuckles were the unfortunate ones. And for them, dealing with the snowstorm was truly a serious matter of survival.

The night that the snowstorm blew in, both of them were visiting at Amy's apartment, and she offered for them to spend the night in her living room. But the next morning, the two of them discovered that the snow had frozen the train tracks, shutting down all the trains in the city. With no other way to the Mystic Ruins, they were stranded in Station Square until the storms blew over. At first, they weren't too concerned, and figured the snow would melt within a day or so.

But the snow stayed for much longer than that. After the third day, Tails and Knuckles realized they might be stuck in the city for weeks before the trains could operate safely again. After digging into his savings account at the bank, the echidna went hunting for a place they could stay in; eventually, he settled on a small one-story house up for lease in one of the few Mobian neighborhoods close by the city. They moved in the very next day. But their only belongings were the clothes on their backs; everything else was back at the workshop. So more money had to be put toward the essentials: food, water, tools, clothes, and blankets to keep them warm.

Not long after that, however, their luck went bad again.

Because of the cold weather, all construction projects were postponed, so Knuckles was out of a job. He tried to improvise by venturing out into the neighborhoods and shoveling snow out of driveways and roads; but he wasn't paid very much. Tails was both lucky and unlucky with his job; the newspaper had to stay open to inform the public. But his paper routes became colder and longer, because his bike had several problems and he had to go carefully to avoid icy spots in the roads.

It wasn't long before the fox also came down with a cold. Often when he came to the newspaper stand, his nose was stuffed up and his throat sore. Kate offered him as much cold medicine and hot chocolate as she could, but even that barely helped. It got so bad that he almost nodded off while riding his bike; at that point, Knuckles decided that his charge should take a break and stay home so he could get better.

However, Tails wasn't lucky enough to have paid sick days. And when the supply of money stopped, so did the steady supply of food. Knuckles checked and double-checked their earnings, and carefully tried to save it for home improvement projects to protect against the cold.

But it was an uphill battle. Although they were lucky enough to have a house to live in, it wasn't insulated well. The snow and wind seeped under doors and windowsills. Drifts piled up against the doors, and had to be shoveled off regularly. Water pipes leaked and broke, and the heating system didn't always work.

As the situation worsened, all the two friends could think about was getting two things: warmth and food. They tried putting on several outfits at once to insulate themselves; but too many of their clothes were torn and thin. When it got too cold for them to sleep by themselves, they shared the pull-out bed in a sofa, so they could transfer body heat. But food was harder to attain; they couldn't always visit a grocery store every day, and they constantly had to watch what they were spending. And at every mealtime, they would examine the cupboards and realize with sinking hearts that, in spite of their best efforts, the food pantry, and their stomachs, were getting emptier.

Slowly, but surely, starvation set in.

Every icy morning, Tails woke up with a gnawing pain—real, acute pain—in his abdomen. Breakfast, comprised of a single piece of toast without butter (a luxury), was never enough to satisfy his hunger. Hot cocoa and marshmallows with Kate at lunchtime was a little better—it was the only thing he could look forward to when he was on the job, and the only thing that kept him going in the afternoon hours. Dinner was a thin, tasteless canned soup of chicken broth, noodles, and very little vegetables. The strong-hearted fox never complained, just grateful he had anything to eat at all. Still, that didn't stop his mind from conjuring up hot, delicious feasts of stew, turkey, pie, and chocolate in his dreams.

The cruel, bitterly cold weather continued to stay. The days blended together until the two friends didn't know or care what day it was. Christmas came and went with little fanfare; they didn't have any money for presents, let alone decorations. The only way they celebrated was by having extra helpings of each meal—nothing more.

Soon, Knuckles became very concerned for poor Tails. No matter what he did to the house, to their job situation, or to their food, the boy was getting thinner and more lethargic. His fur became dirty, and his sky-blue eyes, once so full of energy and youth, had lost their shine and become glazed and expressionless.

But what really made his heart lurch was he could see the boy's spirit weakening. He started talking about giving up on his job, because he felt too weak or sick to go out half the time. He wasn't interested in playing games or talking, only sleeping and keeping warm. Worst of all, the echidna sometimes woke up in the middle of the night hearing noises—Tails whimpering and crying for Sonic.

He tried everything he knew to do. He worked hard, saved money, and tried to put on a brave face in their predicament. He even dared to try and sneak bigger portions of food for the young fox: a few extra spoonfuls of soup in his bowl or another slice of bread on his plate. But nothing worked; the money he did get wasn't enough to buy the food they really needed. Tails didn't smile anymore, and he always caught the echidna's food tricks and forced him to take it back.

Still, deep within Tails, part of him continued to fight. He came up with ways to preserve the one thing that his life now depended upon: his strength. He got up earlier than before to go to the newspaper stand, so he could walk slower and still arrive on time. During the hours when he wasn't working or looking for extra jobs, he stayed at the house and took a nap. While children his age went outdoors and played in the snow, he found the stores that had open heaters and warmed up his chilled body. He never rushed into anything and never got excited, because that would be a waste of valuable energy.

And perhaps that was what kept him from falling dangerously ill—that, and the fragile hope that things would get better.

Finally, after two weeks of horrible weather, Tails' and Knuckles' fortune showed signs of changing for the better.

* * *

One Saturday afternoon, while Knuckles was out shoveling snow, Tails was trudging on the sidewalk, weaving between the crowds of humans and avoiding icy patches and piles of snow. He briefly stopped in the doorway of a gift shop to catch his breath and wrap his red scarf tighter around his neck. Shivering and coughing faintly (he was still recovering from his cold), he shut his eyes and wished he didn't have to be outside today in the cold. It was his day off, and he wanted nothing more than to take a long nap on the sofa—to curl up in a tight ball, burrow under three layers of blankets, and sleep long and deep, like a bear in hibernation.

But he was out walking for a vital reason. The heating system in their run-down house had quit, permanently; Knuckles had gone to a hardware store and ordered an external one to keep them warm. But since he was busy looking for work, he had asked Tails to go to the store for him the day the heater was supposed to arrive. Tails knew that the house needed that heater desperately; he and Knuckles would freeze to death without it.

Jerking himself out of his thoughts, Tails stepped out of the doorway and looked up at the sky. He started to take a step forward, but then gave a start and did a double-take. It wasn't snowing anymore, and the wind had died down! Did that mean the bad weather was almost over? He had to find a weather report!

For the first time in weeks, he had something good to get excited about, though he did his best to keep his feelings under control, to save his energy. He kept his pace at a walk as he searched along the sidewalk for any newspapers blowing around; sure enough, he found one half-buried in a snowdrift. Picking it up, he peeled the wet pages back to find the weather section. The answers to his questions weren't as solid as he had hoped; the experts were a little divided about when the freak storm would end. But a few predicted that the weather would gradually get better over the next few days, and the temperatures should start going up instead of down. Feeling a little better, the fox threw the paper away and resumed his journey to check on the heater.

But those optimistic feelings came crashing down when he entered the hardware store. It turned out that the shipment had been delayed, and the heater wouldn't arrive for three more days. The boy sighed; that meant three more days without an efficient heater to keep the house warm. With a half-hearted thank-you to the store clerk, he left and went back into the icy outdoors.

But instead of going back home, he was struck with a sudden impulse: he wanted to see the Wonka chocolate factory again. The temptation of smelling melted chocolate was too much for his starving body to resist. Half an hour later, after a slow jog, the fox was standing at the front gates. Shuffling on his feet, he stood there for several minutes with his nose in the air. But he didn't just sniff; he sucked in long, deep breaths through his nose and licked his lips, as if he was trying to _eat_ the smell. Sometimes he overdid it, and the chilly air would sting his airways and make him sneeze and cough roughly.

For most of the time, he was alone on that street. But at one point, two men came by him, walking their dogs. They started talking to one another when they reached the corner of the street.

"Did you see the papers yesterday?" asked one. "The last Golden Ticket was found!"

"You're kidding! Who found it?"

"Some millionaire in the Northern Provinces, I believe."

Tails leaned closer to hear more, but one of the dogs, a Chihuahua in a special dog sweater, nipped at his leg. Yelping in surprise, the fox jumped back, only to fall into a snowdrift. It wasn't very deep and only went up to his chest, but it was wet and cold. The men only made it worse by laughing and saying some rather degrading things about Mobians. Then, without offering any kind of help, they moved on down the street.

Trembling, Tails slowly got to his feet and shook himself, looking at his coat with dismay; it was soaked through by the snow. He tried wrapping it tighter around him, but it only made his fur wetter. A few tears slipped from his eyes and trickled down his cheeks; he took a few shaky breaths and bit his lip to stop himself from crying. But he wasn't so much hurt by the men's treatment as he was upset by their news.

The last Golden Ticket had been found? His last chance to meet Mr. Wonka and see the inside of his factory was gone…

With his head as low as his chest, the sad fox moved as slow as a snail to a street that would take him back to the house. There was no point in hanging around the factory gates anymore—not when it would remind him of an empty dream.

But a few blocks before the neighborhood, he passed by a gutter clogged with snow…and suddenly stopped. He had spotted something green among the white. He walked over and knelt down to better see it; then his eyes widened in surprise.

It was _a five-dollar bill._

Tails looked up around him and across the street, wondering if someone had recently dropped it. But no, it was partially buried in the snow; it must have been there a while. He continued to study the humans (and a few Mobians) on the street with him. All were in constant motion, some fast, some slow. Their faces were shielded by scarves or the collars of their coats, and they always faced forward. No one appeared to be looking for dropped money.

_Does that mean I can __**have **__it?_ wondered the boy. He plucked the dollar out of the snow in the gutter and brushed it clean. _It's mine! Five whole dollars! Wow!_

…_But, what should I use it for?_

He knew this could be put toward a number of home projects, and Knuckles would be a little happier with that. But as he was reaching to put it in his coat pocket, his stomach growled, and his hand froze. A new thought occurred to him in that instant.

He could use the dollar bill for _food_.

The more he thought about it, the hungrier he became, until he was consumed by the idea of buying food with the money. His mouth watered furiously as images of burgers, steaks, stews, and cakes danced before his eyes. But, rather unexpectedly, a different idea popped into his head.

He could buy a _Wonka bar!_

For whatever reason, in that moment, nothing sounded more delicious to Tails than a Wonka bar. He stared at the dollar clutched in his hand, and then nodded firmly at it. He had made his decision.

A Wonka bar it was!


	8. The Miracle of the Fifth Golden Ticket

Chapter #7: The Miracle of the Fifth Golden Ticket

After sprinting down several city blocks, Tails found himself at the place he always went to for chocolate, candy, and deserts: a local confection shop known as Joe's Ice Cream Parlor. (A/N: My creation, I own it.) Its miniature courtyard of outside tables was empty of customers and covered in snow, but he could see it was busy on the inside. One of the windows displayed a sign that made his heart leap: "Wonka Bars in Stock Now". He didn't hesitate for another second, and bounded through the doors; the little bell mounted on top announced his arrival.

The inside of the shop had black-and-white checkered tile and wooden walls. Half the room was occupied by tables, chairs, and booths, the other half by a long bar with several revolving stools seated in front. Behind the counter were soda fountains, ice cream containers, and shelves full of chocolate and candy bars of all shapes, sizes, and wrappers. The sight made his mouth water all over again.

"Can I help you?" said a friendly voice from behind the counter. A man in a candy-cane-stripped uniform with the name "Joe" labeled on it leaned over the counter and smiled at him. The fox's two tails attracted his attention, and he immediately recognized him. "Well, I'll be! If it isn't Tails! Good to see you, son!"

"Hey, Joe," said the fox. "What's the cheapest Wonka bar you sell?" Even though he was starving for chocolate, he still managed to think of saving some of the money for later.

"The regular bars, Milk Chocolate and Dark, are only $1.50 each, counting tax," replied the shop owner. "I don't have any other Wonka candies that cost less."

"That's okay. I'll get one Milk Chocolate."

"I need to get it from the back. Wait here a second, please."

Joe walked into the back room where he kept his stock of candies, and returned a moment later with a Milk Chocolate bar. He gave it to Tails in exchange for the five-dollar bill. Right then and there the fox tore the wrapper off and began eating it, not caring if he was sloppy.

"Looks like you haven't had a treat for while, sonny," commented the man as he rang the cash register.

"Mm-hmm," was the reply.

"Careful with that. Don't eat it too fast or you'll get a stomachache."

The boy either didn't hear him or didn't care; he went right on with the Wonka bar until he was done. As he licked his fingers and lips for the last remnants of the chocolate, he noticed the leftover change—three one-dollar bills and two quarters—sitting on the counter beside him. He stared at them for a few minutes and then made a decision. When Joe was done helping another customer, he asked, "Could I have another one? The same kind, please?"

"No problem! I need to open another box, though, so it'll take longer. Be right back." Joe took the appropriate change back, and after putting them in the register, he returned to the storage room.

While Joe was in the back room, Tails noticed a man reading a paper a few stools away from him. The main headline in huge, bold letters caught his eye. His eyes widened in shock, and his twin tails stood straight up.

"'Fifth Golden Ticket a Fake!'?" he read aloud.

The man looked at him. "Yep," he replied. "The press found out last night. The guy in the North Provinces faked a Ticket." He shoved the paper toward the fox. "Read it if you want. I don't need it anymore." Then he left the parlor.

Although he was interested, Tails didn't have time to read the article, because Joe returned with another Wonka Milk Chocolate bar. "Here you go, Tails."

"Thanks," the fox said as he took the bar. He proceeded to open it while Joe picked up the newspaper. Licking his lips in anticipation of the tasty chocolate bar, and still processing the news of the faked Golden Ticket, he tore open the foil wrapper…

And then, _suddenly_, there was a flash of gold.

Tails felt his heart stop.

"_It's the Golden Ticket!"_ gasped Joe. "You found it, kid! And in _my_ shop too!"

Tails couldn't breathe. He was frozen like a statue where he stood, his hands held out in front of him. The remains of the label and wrapper had fluttered to the floor, and the bar of chocolate soon followed after. The only thing he continued to hold in his immobile hands was the strip of precious gold paper. Then, slowly, a smile of pure joy lit up his face until he was beaming.

_The fifth Golden Ticket! The last Golden Ticket! It was __**his**__!_

Unfortunately, Joe's excited yells were quick to attract the attention of the rest of the customers in the ice cream parlor. In a flash, a crowd composed mostly of kids formed at the counter. The instant some of them saw the Ticket, the shop erupted with frenzied screams of ecstasy and shouts of disbelief.

"Oh my gosh! There it is! I see it!"

"The last Golden Ticket!"

"Hold it up! I wanna see it!"

"Who got it? I can't see!"

"It's Tails! Sonic's sidekick! Tails got the Ticket!"

Not everyone was happy about the discovery, however. One boy, a fat one, shook a fist in the air furiously and said, "How could a _Mobian_ beat me, a poor one at that! I've been buyin' _twenty _Wonka bars here every day for weeks!"

Another said jealously, "And he'll get truckloads of chocolate too."

"He'll need it. He's skinnier than a toothpick!" teased a third.

Then a teenage boy with long black hair shoved his way through the crowd and got close to Tails. He whispered in his ear, "I'll give you fifty bucks for that Ticket. I'll throw in my bike if you want."

A blonde girl in a bright-red wool coat heard him and shouted, "No way! I'll give him five_ hundred _dollars for it!"

Upon hearing the offers, Joe pushed his way to Tails and told the crowd to leave him alone. Then he said to the fox, "Don't you sell that Ticket! It's priceless! Go home and don't stop 'till you get there!"

Tails, who was still shocked speechless, acknowledged him with a small nod. To escape from the crowd, he leaped into the air and hovered high over their heads. Then he flew to the door, opened it, and soared into the cold December air. The children pursued him outside, but he vanished from sight quickly by flying over a low building to another street.

When his tails became too exhausted to fly, the fox lowered his body to the ground and burst into a full run. The grin remained stuck on his face, and his sky-blue eyes were dancing with excitement. The Golden Ticket was still clutched tight in his hand, and nothing could have pried it out of his grip. The wind whipped into his face and stung like sharp needles, but he paid no attention. He took a couple more shortcuts by flying, and occasionally did little acrobatic spins and loop-the-loops.

He quickly tired his tails out again, and he had to run the rest of the way to the Mobian neighborhood where the house was. On the last leg of his trip, he made one more sprint to the house and practically threw himself at the door, forcing it open with a thunderous _BANG! _

Knuckles, who had returned home early and had fallen asleep on the sofa, shot up from his seat like he had been sitting on a loaded spring.

"_Yipe!_ What the…! What's goin' on?" he demanded.

For the first time since he had found the Ticket, Tails found his voice. He spoke like he was having a sugar rush. _"Knuckles! _I found it! It's mine! I found some money in the gutter and bought two Wonka bars and _this _was in one of them! _**It's the fifth Golden Ticket, Knuckles, and I found it!"**_

"_What?"_

But he didn't get the answer repeated; poor Tails was panting too hard. Instead the fox pulled the Ticket out of his coat pocket and put it into the echidna's palm.

For a moment, Knuckles couldn't believe what was sitting in his hands, and he simply stared at it while saying "Whoa…" over and over. Could he really believe what he was seeing? Was it really possible?

Then suddenly, a miraculous change came over him. All his skepticism and annoyance about the contest was washed away; in spite of the odds, hope had won the day. He could see that now.

A big grin spread across his face, and he slammed Tails' back. "All right, Tails! You did it! You hit the jackpot! Turn on a light in here, quick! Let's read it!"

* * *

After clicking on a light in the kitchen (and taking a moment to calm themselves), Tails and Knuckles studied the precious ticket that had miraculously fallen into their possession. It was easy for them to see why the other four winners had kept theirs close to them; it was a priceless thing, not to mention beautiful.

The Golden Ticket appeared to have been made out of the purest gold and hammered into a delicate sheet as thin as normal paper. Both the fox and the echidna handled the document like it was a piece of chinaware and carefully held it into the light. They blinked as the paper reflected the light into their eyes off its flawless, smooth, golden surface. Once they adjusted to the light, they looked at the jet-black letters that had been printed on one side of the ticket.

It was Tails who chose to speak, and, after clearing his throat and licking his lips nervously, he read the words aloud:

"_Greetings and congratulations to you, the lucky finder of this Golden Ticket, from Mr. Willy Wonka! You, among four others, have earned the rare privilege of touring my factory for a whole day! I will show you around myself and reveal to you a few (if not all) of the secrets of my beloved factory! After the tour, I will give you a special reward: a lifetime supply of any Wonka chocolates and candies you wish! But the reward won't be the best part of the tour: I have many surprises awaiting you inside the factory, surprises more marvelous and wonderful than you could ever dream of!_

"_And now, here are your instructions: come to the factory gate on the first of January at 10 o' clock sharp. Don't be late, and make sure to bring your Golden Ticket, otherwise admittance will not be granted! Also, you are allowed to bring one friend or family member with you into the factory to share in this fantastic experience. I will be expecting you! ~ Willy Wonka."_

Tails looked again at the appointed date, and gave a start. "January 1st?" he exclaimed. "That's tomorrow!" He began pacing around the room, listing the preparations he needed to make. "I need to wash some clothes for tomorrow, take a bath, polish my shoes…"

Knuckles fell onto the floor laughing and clutching his sides. "Take it easy, Tails! It's not like you're going to meet the President or something!"

But the fox vigorously shook his head. "But this is Mr. _Willy Wonka_, Knuckles! He's the greatest chocolate maker in the world! I want to look my best when I meet him!"

"Okay, but have you forgotten something?"

There was a short pause. Tails stared at him and blinked, completely clueless. "Uhh…"

The Guardian laughed again. "The Ticket says you need a partner to go with you to the factory."

"Ohh…" For a moment he rubbed his chin in thought, and then he looked back at his friend, his cheeks red. "Um, Knuckles?"

He held his hands up in surrender. "You don't need to ask, Tails. I'll go with you."

Tails' face beamed with happiness. "Thanks a bunch, Knuckles."

"Don't mention it. Now go ahead and get ready for tomorrow; we've got a factory to go to!"

But before either of them could even move to begin their preparations, they heard loud hammering on the front door. Tails opened it, and was instantly blinded by the flashes of cameras. The press, who had gotten wind of the Golden Ticket discovery from Joe the parlor owner, had finally caught up with the lucky winner. The throng poured into the run-down house and insisted on getting their story. Knowing it was useless to refuse (and feeling a little giddy from all the attention), Tails complied with their requests and told them how he had found the Golden Ticket.

For several hours, interviewers took their turns, scribbling furiously in their notepads or holding microphones to the boy's face. Local news stations were broadcasting the live feed of their on-site camera crews all over the city; country-wide networks were already sending out reporters of their own, and newspapers were preparing to put a big article in their editions for the next day. In between interviews, Tails slipped in and out of the bedroom and bathroom to clean himself up. (Poor Knuckles was left to argue with the crowd and answer a few questions himself.)

In a matter of hours, word had spread that Miles "Tails" Prower, the young sidekick of Sonic the Hedgehog, had found the final Wonka Golden Ticket. People came to the house in droves, wanting to glimpse the lucky winner and his prize; whenever he appeared at the front door or a window, they cheered and clamored for a speech or autographs. But the only two people the fox allowed inside the house were Amy and Cream, who came by to congratulate him on finding the Golden Ticket.

When Knuckles was finally able to chase out the crowd and lock them out of the house, it was very late; night had fallen already, and the gray clouds were even clearing up enough to allow fleeting glimpses of the moon. Tails wanted to stay up, making the excuse that it was New Year's Eve, but his guardian wouldn't allow it. They were going to have a big day tomorrow, and they both needed the rest.

But for an hour more, Tails just couldn't fall asleep; he was still shaking with excitement—what a wild day this had been! As he finally began to nod off, he pinched himself many times to make sure this wasn't a crazy dream. But his precious Golden Ticket, tucked safely in a leather pouch hidden under his pillow, was a constant reminder that his wish really had come true.

Tomorrow, he would walk through the gates of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory!


	9. Swing Wide, Ye Factory Gates!

Chapter #8: Swing Wide, Ye Factory Gates!

The big day had finally arrived! It was time for the five Golden Ticket winners to enter Willy Wonka's chocolate factory!

As morning dawned and the hour of 10:00 drew nearer, the clouds suddenly parted, and the sun made a surprise appearance in the gray-blue sky. In spite of it, however, the temperature was still in the low range, leaving the air sharp and crisp. Not a single flake of snow fell, but plenty of it remained on the ground.

When people had recovered from their New Year's festivities, they swarmed to the factory gates in massive droves, like flocks of migrating birds. They came from all over, not just from Station Square—from neighboring cities and provinces, from every corner of the United Federation. The city police, trying to establish order amidst the excited thousands, were forced to call in S.W.A.T. teams to hold the people back from the gates and to construct some form of fencing to provide a pathway for the winners. Once that had been made, someone supplied a red carpet that started a block away and led up to the gates.

At 9:50 a.m., the five winners arrived.

An old pickup truck drove up the block and screeched to a stop next to the starting end of the carpet. Out of the pickup bed hopped the first winner, Big. (Since the train tracks were still icy, a helicopter had flown out to the Mystic Ruins to pick him up.) With Froggy perched on his shoulder, his fishing rod in one hand and a huge chocolate bar in the other, he slowly walked down the pathway. Occasionally he would glance at the crowd watching him and wave the hand holding the bar at them with a silly grin on his face. Just as he made it to the end of the carpet, the other four made their entrance.

Behind the truck came a school bus the city had provided for the big event. After the truck moved away, it stopped in its place, and the driver opened the doors. The second winner, Rouge, stepped out in a graceful manner with a smile on her face. But the grin quickly vanished when a cold breeze caused her to shiver and wrap the mink coat she wore tightly about her. Then she looked at the bus and curled her lip in disgust.

"This thing was our ride?" she said, studying it for the first time. "I thought I ordered a black limousine! Shadow, get me a limousine as soon as this is over!"

The black hedgehog came out of the bus, his ears flattened and his fists and teeth clenched. For him, the whole day had started out horribly—Rouge was making him wear a scratchy suit and a coat that made him too warm. Now she wanted him to get her a limousine! While glaring daggers at her back, he slipped his hand into one of his coat pockets and brought out a notepad and pen—his list of things Rouge told him to get. He jotted the request down, muttering under his breath, "As you command, Your Highness."

The next winner to get off was Amy, who wore a pink coat, and she stared at the gates with awe while still chewing on a piece of gum. "Wow," she exclaimed, "we're going in _there_?" Then, realizing that her companion was not present, she turned and called, "Come on, Cream!"

"Be right there, Amy!" answered the rabbit from inside the bus. While she was buttoning her own coat, she happened to glance at the fifth pair. Puzzled, she asked, "Why are you wearing your leather pilot jacket, Tails? It's too cold for that."

The fox shrugged, his cheeks turning a bit red in embarrassment. "It's the only one I have," he admitted. "All my other coats are back home, at the workshop."

"Oh…" Making a mental note to ask her mom to knit a sweater or find a coat for Tails, Cream left the bus and skipped after Amy, Rouge, and Shadow. Cheese, who had also come along, hovered beside her, shivering a bit, even in his thick red sweater; although the Ticket said only one companion could come with the winner, Cream hoped Mr. Wonka wouldn't mind.

Without warning, Charmy burst out of the bus and happily flew out into the open air (he had felt cooped up in the small bus) and did a few loop-the-loops, moving constantly to keep himself warm in his thick, bright-orange sweater (insects like him can't stand the cold, after all). Then he turned back to the bus and called out, "Come on out, Espio! The weather's fine! My coat is keeping me warm!"

The voice of the chameleon answered from inside the bus, "Easy for you to say. You're not a reptile."

"You've gotta come with me, ya know! So come on!"

"Grrr…fine."

Espio was totally unrecognizable as he stepped out of the bus. Instead of looking like a magenta chameleon, he bore more resemblance to a miniature Abominable Snowman. He was wrapped from head to toe in three layers of white winter coats with hoods, thus causing him to move stiffly with his arms spread out. The only exposed piece of him was his horn, and even then only a couple inches of it was visible. Snow goggles over his eyes completed the unusual outfit, and it was hard for several people in the crowd not to laugh. Charmy snickered a bit at his partner's get-up, but stopped the minute Espio glared daggers at him through his goggles. Trying to ignore the stares from the crowd, he waddled a few feet behind Cream, who was chatting with Amy. He became silent, and only spoke when Charmy made a move to fly over the gates; he quietly ordered him to come down and behave. The six-year-old obeyed, but not without whining that the chameleon was "no fun".

As Espio walked after the others, yet another voice came from the bus. "Why does he have to wear all that stuff anyway?"

"Cold-blooded reptiles like Espio can't regulate their body temperature, Knuckles," replied a second voice. "They have to get their heat from another source. Since it's so cold, he needs to insulate himself more than other animals do."

And last but not least, the speakers—obviously Knuckles and Tails—stepped off the bus. As Cream had noticed, the fox wore a leather pilot's jacket—not the best thing to wear in such weather, but it was the only thing he had that looked good enough for the occasion. Knuckles had a thicker coat he had bought a long time ago, and by now it was a bit worn from all the work he had done on Angel Island. Their apparel very easily reflected their financial status, and both of them noticed the looks of sympathy that passed between people in the crowd.

The five winners and five partners lined up in front of the gates, all of them staring at the only thing between them and the chocolate factory. They and the crowd around them fell silent. Eventually Charmy broke the silence with two words.

"…I'm bored."

Shadow glared at him, his ears tilting back in annoyance. "We've got five minutes yet, so be quiet."

The bee had the nerve to stick his tongue out at the black hedgehog, which nearly drove him off the edge. Seeing this, Espio pulled a handheld video game system out of one of his coat pockets. With an exclamation of joy, Charmy grabbed it and proceeded to play a noisy shooting game. This irritated Shadow more and earned some glances at Espio from a few others, namely Rouge, Amy, and Knuckles.

Five minutes can take a long time to pass, as the ten Mobians quickly found out. Sick of the quiet (except for Charmy's game) and their boring white surroundings, they each did something to pass the time. Rouge decided to recite some more things she wanted, nearly driving Shadow nuts again as he wrote them down. Big satiated his huge appetite with some more chocolate bars he had brought while Froggy tried to catch with his tongue the snowflakes kicked up by a mild gust of wind. Cream and Cheese started a small snowball fight with the snowdrifts that had built up next to the gates; after some "puppy dog" looks, they persuaded Amy and even Tails to join them. Knuckles and Espio simply watched them, both showing no emotion, but they were inwardly amused by the simple game.

And then, without warning, a clock in a nearby, old-fashioned square struck 10:00.

As the tolling faded away into silence, another noise replaced it: the grating sound of the iron gates creaking open. All eyes turned to them as they swung backward into the wide lawn of the chocolate factory. After going about 90 degrees, the gates halted. But even though the gates were open, the five winners and their friends hesitated…at least for a second.

Knuckles said carefully, "Maybe we should wait and see if Wonka comes out to…"

He never got to finish his sentence, because Charmy took off like a bullet, flying into the once-forbidden territory of the factory. "I don't wanna wait!" he shouted. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

"Wait for us!" Amy and Cream cried as one, and they too rushed onto the factory grounds. Cheese hovered with them, squealing in excitement.

Espio sighed, looked at the remaining Mobians, and said with a shrug, "We might as well." Then he proceeded to catch up with his young charge, albeit slowly because of his clothes.

Rolling her eyes, Rouge walked through the gates and then stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Come on, Shadow," she ordered firmly in a low voice. The black hedgehog obeyed while glaring at her back.

Tails and Knuckles turned to each other, their eyes quietly asking the other, "You ready?" Both of them took their first steps at the same time. The only difference between the pair's attitude was that the echidna looked forward and around him while Tails timidly looked down at his feet. The fox wasn't sure what—or who—was waiting for them in the factory, and he felt nervous.

As he walked, he suddenly recalled a similar event during Metal Sonic's rebellion. (A/N: Of course, I'm referring to _Sonic Heroes_.) He had been attacked by a similar nervousness when he had ventured into a creepy mansion filled with booby traps; what was worse, he had had to search for a key to a locked door by himself for a while. Then a confident, familiar voice echoed in his head.

"_That's the fun part about adventure, Tails."_

The fox smiled; how could he forget that he hadn't been alone? In fact, even now he could easily imagine the speaker striding beside him with his famous, mischievous smirk on his face.

"_If you knew exactly what was coming, it wouldn't be very fun, know what I mean? You just gotta be confident and ready for anything. You can do this, little bro. I know you can."_

Tails closed his eyes and waited for him to ruffle his head fur, as he had done that time, but when he looked again, the image had vanished. With a small sniff and a wistful sigh, he turned his head to see Knuckles staring at him. His expression asked the question for him.

"Thinking of Sonic again?"

The young fox gave a tiny smile and lengthened his stride, keeping his head up and eyes forward; his best friend's advice had encouraged him considerably. Behind him, the Guardian smiled also; that smart aleck had a way with the kid. If only he would come back…

Both echidna and fox were pulled out of their thoughts when Amy said, "This is weird. Should we do it?" The duo caught up with the others and saw what puzzled them.

Taped on the front door to the main factory building was a sign that read "Welcome, Golden Ticket winners! Feel free to enter unannounced; my guide will be waiting for you! –W.W."

Knuckles cocked an eyebrow. "He was supposed to take us around the place himself, not a guide. What happened?"

"Something fishy is goin' on…" muttered Espio.

Rouge, however, did not agree. "Don't be so paranoid, gumshoe. I'm sure he's too busy to show us around the factory himself and had to get someone else to do it. Now let's just go in." Before anyone could object, she gripped the doorknob, pushed the door inward, and disappeared inside. Charmy darted in after her, and the rest followed as well.

To the group's surprise, the lobby of the building was dark; the only light came from outside. And as soon as the last one to enter—Tails—let go of the door, it swung back and locked tight, leaving the surprised Mobians trapped in the darkness.

"Great…now we're stuck in here without a light," Shadow growled. Tails winced, sensing the unspoken "Smooth move, foxboy" in his tone of voice.

A loud noise was heard, like a switch had been thrown; and the gang spotted a pair of wall-mounted lights shining at the end of the hall.

"Let there be light," remarked Knuckles.

When they walked into the light, the doors at the end of the hall opened, and a set of red curtains was beyond them. The curtains then pulled back, revealing, of all things, a small stage. There were circular platforms with levels like wedding cakes, square columns with large gears and pinwheels mounted on them, and rotating candy canes. The entire set was painted in bright candy colors: pink, orange, yellow, neon-green, and sky-blue.

Standing on the platforms and rotating on the wheels were dozens of mechanical puppets—male puppets wearing white parlor uniforms with red stripes and matching hats, and female puppets with blonde braids dressed in colorful dresses. As the curtains lifted, the whole crowd broke into song and "danced" to a lively tune playing in the background. (A/N: Those who have seen the movie _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ will remember that this tune is "Wonka's Welcome Song". I think copyrights prevent me from putting down the lyrics, though. Sorry.)

The ten Mobians' reactions to this strange song were, for the most part, the same: complete puzzlement with a bit of disgust. Big, Froggy, Cream, and Cheese were the exceptions; they seemed to think the tune was all right. But the song itself was nothing compared to what happened next.

As the song reached its climax, the platforms moved a bit, and an empty, yellow chair with purple cushions came out of the floor. The puppets gestured toward the supposed throne, the lyrics of their song saying that Willy Wonka was there; of course, he wasn't. The song ended, and the stage was showered in a loud display of fireworks and pyrotechnics. And that's when things went wrong.

Parts of the puppets were too close to the sparks, and they caught fire. The flames spread quickly and began to melt the victims. And, to add to the sorry scene, the song started up again, and the puppets attempted to give an encore, even though most of them were severely burned, half-melted, and oozing paint.

For a few minutes the winners and their partners watched the bizarre spectacle without saying a word, and then Rouge broke the silence.

"What a sorry excuse for a show. That's something I _don't_ want." She didn't see Shadow slump against the wall and breathe a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice pierced the air. "Sorry about that! Some bugs need to be worked out! Master Wonka never cared much for it anyway…"

Everyone jumped and searched their surroundings for the hidden speaker. "Who's there?" questioned Espio. "Friend or foe?"

"A friend, obviously!" answered the voice.

A small, shadowy shape moved from behind the stage and came into the light. The five pairs of visitors blinked in surprise. The mysterious speaker was…

…A light-blue Chao in a purple tailcoat, wearing a top hat!

_(End of Part I)_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Okay, now before any of you start freaking out, this isn't the end of the story. Remember the little subtitle back in Chapter #1, "Part I: The Golden Tickets"? I'm dividing this story up a bit differently than before. Turn the (virtual) page for Part II! (...And reviews for Part I would be appreciated.)


	10. Of Chao and Chocolate

_**Tails and the Chocolate Factory**_

_Part __II__: The Chocolate Factory_

By_ Hoverbike Girl_

**Author's Note:** Obviously, Part II covers the tour of the chocolate factory, which includes the four "Brat Eliminations" that befall our "lucky" winners. This portion is largely the same as the first version; most of it really didn't need to be updated. Only towards the end was there a big change: I split a really long chapter into two smaller ones. So don't go anywhere; the fun is just getting started!

(And to those of you who have read and loved my profile updates, a certain lovable fancharacter of mine makes his debut in this chapter!)

* * *

Chapter #9: Of Chao and Chocolate

The five Golden Ticket winners—Big, Rouge, Amy, Charmy, and Tails—and their six partners—Froggy, Shadow, Cream and Cheese, Espio, and Knuckles—stared, dumbfounded, at the little Chao hovering in front of them, wearing a friendly grin. They could hardly believe their eyes or ears!

Knuckles was the first to find his voice. "Did that Chao just…talk?"

The little light-blue (darker than sky-blue) creature cocked his head to the side, and a mischievous glimmer appeared in his blue eyes. He opened his mouth and said, "Of course! Talking is easy!"

Everyone jumped, and some of their mouths fell open. They had heard a gibberish language and a few easy, short words from Cheese, but nothing like _this_!

This time the Chao laughed. "Yeah, Master Wonka found that hard to believe when I first met him."

"You're not Mr. Willy Wonka?" exclaimed Cream.

He blinked in surprise. "Little ol' me? No way! I just help him run the factory!" Then he slapped his forehead with his paw. "Whoops! I forgot to introduce myself!"

Putting on his friendly smile, he removed his top hat and bowed politely to his guests.

"My name's Monty, and I'll be your tour guide for Master Wonka's Chocolate Factory!"

"Why do you call him your master? Is he a slave-driver or something?" Amy asked.

"Monty" shook his head rapidly. "Oh no! It's more of an affectionate title, really. He's actually very nice to us!"

"Us?" Tails said, his eyes widening. "You mean…the mysterious factory workers are _Chao_?"

Charmy leaped into the air and cried, "One Wonka mystery solved!"

Monty laughed again. "And plenty more secrets will be revealed, too. Follow me and I'll take you all to the first room of the tour!" He turned around to fly back where he had come from, but then he halted and slapped himself again. "Scatterbrain!" he scolded himself. "I forgot to ask for your Golden Tickets!"

Five arms with hands clasping the five Tickets went up.

"You guys were prompt; I like that!" He studied the ones holding the Tickets, and then added, "So you guys must be…Big the Cat, Rouge the Bat, Amy Rose, Charmy Bee, and Miles 'Tails' Prower!" Then he eyed the ones partnered up with them and repeated the process. "And you guys are…Froggy the, uh, frog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Cream the Rabbit (and her friend Cheese), Espio the Chameleon, and Knuckles the Echidna! Nice to meet you all!"

"What in the…how did you know _our_ names?" Shadow asked in surprise.

"And how did you know my full name?" Tails put in. "I don't tell very many people what it is."

Monty's reaction to the questions, particularly the second one, was very unusual. His smile vanished, and his eyes grew a few sizes. He gulped, wiped the sweat that had appeared on his brow, and seemed to look at the ceiling while biting his lip. As he was tugging at the green bowtie around his neck, he stammered and tried to give a reasonable answer. "Erm, uh, heh, heh, the newspapers," he replied, though the statement sounded more like a question. The funny looks the guests were giving him made him feel even more nervous, and he turned away from them. It barely helped though; he could feel their eyes boring into his back. Finally, after a moment of silence, he said, "Shall we begin the tour?"

Thankfully, he heard eight pairs of footsteps (Charmy flew, and Froggy rode on Big's shoulder) proceed up the steps, and he led them past the burning puppets to a closed door that was not visible from the front of the stage. He opened it, revealing beyond the door a long, pink corridor that had several doors on both sides. He gestured for the Mobians to follow him down the hallway, and, after several turns, they reached a door that had a brass plate on it. It read "Lobby".

"Just a really quick stop here," Monty told them as he opened the door.

The lobby was a finely furnished room with dark wood paneling on the walls, maroon and purple carpets, house plants, and leather armchairs and couches. Near the ceiling on one wall the word "Wonka" was painted in white with a purple top hat sitting on the edge of the W (like you would see on one of the chocolate or candy bar labels). As the winners and their companions took in the scenery, they couldn't help but notice something else: it was warmer inside the lobby.

"Wow, why's it so hot in here?" Charmy asked.

Monty answered, "We Chao don't like the cold, so Master Wonka bought a really nice heating system for the whole factory. It keeps us warm as we work." He noticed their discomfort in their winter clothes and told them, "You can take off your stuff and hang it all on the coat racks over there." He pointed to a set of five coat racks next to the left wall, and they went over to it and put all their winter gear on them. All of them felt better after they finished.

"By the way, Monty," Tails suddenly said, "how did you and the other Chao end up here with Wonka?"

Monty's face split into a big grin; he had been hoping someone would ask that question. "Well, it's a long story, but I guess I can tell it to you on the way to our next stop." He flew over to a set of red double doors on the other side of the lobby, and the guests followed him into another pink corridor. When the doors shut, the Chao began the story.

"Before we came to live here, the other Chao and I lived in an old, abandoned Chao Garden in the Mystic Ruins. People had stopped coming to care for our predecessors a long time ago, so they had to fend for themselves. It was hard at first, but they got used to it. At first they had no enemies, but as the walls of our garden began to come down, some creatures started to get in. None of them were very friendly, and they couldn't fight them, so they had to hide up in the trees where they couldn't get them. They were careful not to settle in the trees of birds, and they learned to make crude tree houses that would help them adjust. And so our group became tree-dwellers that lived off whatever they could get from the ground.

"We learned to eat a lot of things besides fruit: nuts, roots, and berries, for the most part. But sometimes it was hard to find good food, and the stuff we managed to gather tasted nasty. It was during those times when we would long for a food that was _very _delicious but _very _hard to find: cacao beans.

"For those of you who don't know, cacao beans are the main ingredient for chocolate; you can't have chocolate without the cacao bean. In this factory alone, _billions_ of beans are used every week! It's a miracle we don't run short of it! To most people, eating cacao beans as themselves might sound disgusting, but for us it was a delicacy. One time our leader forbade us to say the word 'cacao' because everyone would start drooling and go on a mad hunt for some! But we were lucky if we found three or four pods of cacao beans in our territory in a year. So Master Wonka's coming seemed like a dream come true.

"It happened one peaceful day, and I was out with some of my friends, venturing out of our safest zone to hunt for cacao beans. Suddenly we smelled something cooking, and we followed it to a small campsite. We saw a lone figure sitting on a log roasting some food for himself, and then we saw the crates stacked next to his tent. We couldn't read the words on it, but we smelled cacao beans, and we went for them and tried to open the boxes. We kind of scared our future master, but when he realized what we wanted he gave some beans to us. We were overjoyed, and then we remembered the rest of our tribe (as we had started calling ourselves) and wanted to bring some back for everyone. Wonka was very friendly to us and agreed to give us one entire crate. He actually carried it to our garden for us!"

"That was really nice of Mister Wonka," commented Cream, who was hooked to the tale.

"Chao," agreed Cheese, who was licking his lips from the talk of cacao beans; although he had never tried raw beans, he adored chocolate, and he figured the beans tasted just as good.

Monty smiled again. "Yes it was! But it was nothing compared to what he did after that." He continued his story, his eyes shining with happiness from the memories.

"As a celebration, we decided to have a banquet. But then Master Wonka offered to start a fire in a clearing of the forest, both for serving the food and for keeping any mean animals away. We were happy that we could dine on the ground instead of in the trees. Many of us still say that that was the best banquet ever held. When it came time for our speeches (many of the Chao in our tribe can speak English, you see), most of us praised the stranger who had wandered into our land. But when it came time for his speech, he surprised all of us with a neat story.

"He told us that he was the owner of a special factory that melts cacao beans, adds sugar and milk to it, and makes it into chocolate. However, he had one problem: he didn't have any workers. He said that he didn't trust the humans that lived in the city where the factory was, and he wanted to hire people who wouldn't tell anyone the secrets of the factory. Then he smiled and said, 'You seem to be trustworthy people. How would you like to work in my factory? In return, I'll pay you in cacao beans and chocolate. In fact, you can move into my factory and live with me if you like!'"

This time, Rouge interrupted the talk, murmuring to herself, "Chao that can make chocolate, eh?" Then she hissed to Shadow in a low tone of voice, "Shadow, I want one of those Chao! Get me one!" He responded by growling and reaching for his notepad.

Monty, who hadn't heard them, went on, "We were very happy, of course—we were being offered food and shelter. To me, the best thing had to be the fact that we were going to live with Master Wonka."

"You're really attached to him, huh?" Charmy asked.

Again the light-blue Chao grinned and even blushed a little bit. "Yeah. And I think he really liked me too. A few days after we moved in, he realized that he needed someone to help him supervise everybody, since the factory is so big and it's hard to look over everything. And guess who he chose to be his right-hand man?"

Shadow snorted at the obvious question. "You."

"Yep! Me!" Monty said, oblivious to the black hedgehog's pessimism. "He even gave me this suit to help identify me! It kinda makes me feel like a superhero's sidekick, you know what I mean? Saving the factory from disaster, one mess at a time!" He struck a flying-Superman pose, which caused many of the guests to chuckle or laugh.

But one was not so happy. Out of the corner of his eye, Knuckles saw Tails' smile slowly turn into a wistful look and his head lower until he was looking at his shoes. The echidna knew why; the fox could relate to Monty, except that his hero had gone missing. But no one else noticed Tails' sadness; they had finally reached their destination.

"Here we are!" Monty declared, gesturing to a metal door at the end of the corridor.

On the door there was another brass plate that read "The Chocolate Room."

As he turned the knob of the door, the Chao guide turned to them and said with an excited grin, "Prepare to be amazed!"


	11. The Chocolate Room and Big's Blunder

Chapter #10: The Chocolate Room and Big's Blunder

The ten guests had been expecting a gigantic room of machinery, but what they saw was very, very far from that. The place the door opened into was gigantic, to be sure, but there were no machines in sight.

They were standing on top of a green hill, and a lush valley was laid out before their eyes. There were rolling hills, natural arches and bridges, and fields, all made of the same dark-brown soil and covered in bright-green grass. There were lovely meadows of vibrant flowers, groves of exotic, bizarrely-colored trees, and bushes that bore a variety of unusual fruit. A ribbon of thick, brown liquid weaved through the valley, with small branches that became creeks and sometimes ended as ponds. This river's origin could be traced to a high cliff, where a wide waterfall plunged over it; the bottom was constantly churning, nearly hiding the mass of glass pipes with their bottoms submerged in the river, noisily sucking the liquid and sending it to who-knew-where. The whole air was filled with the thunderous churning of the waterfall, with no other sound except the whispers of the amazed Mobians.

For a while Monty let the guests stare and gape in wonder, and then he spoke to them. "This is the nerve center for the whole factory; we get most of our chocolate and candy from here! Beautiful, isn't it? It's also Master Wonka's favorite place; he prefers beauty like this over ugly machines."

Rouge sniffed and rolled her eyes. "Then why is the water so dirty?" she asked.

The Chao covered his mouth, trying to resist the temptation to laugh. But he failed and burst into a giggling fit. When he had gotten over it, he exclaimed, "That's not water in the river! That's _chocolate!_ Every drop of it is chocolate of the finest quality!"

All of them blinked in surprise and stared at the waterfall again. No wonder those pipes were sucking up the stuff! They were sending it all over the factory to be made into chocolate bars and other tasty concoctions!

"The waterfall is very crucial to the chocolate-making process," Monty continued. "It actually mixes the chocolate up and gives it a wonderful, unique taste! This is the only way Master Wonka does it! No other method is better than the waterfall!" Then he gave a secretive grin. "But that's not the only special thing about this place. Would you believe me if I told you that everything in the Chocolate Room is _eatable?"_

"_Everything?"_ whispered Cream with eyes as wide as saucers.

"Yes! Everything is made out of a different kind of delicious chocolate or candy! Even the grass is eatable! It's made of a new kind of soft sugar! Try a blade! You'll love it!"

Cream, Cheese, and Charmy automatically reached down and plucked a blade of grass from the ground; Tails followed suit a second after them. But before she stuck a blade into her mouth, Amy, who had been chewing on a piece of gum the entire morning, removed the gum, put it into its old wrapper, and tucked it into her pocket. After Big sampled one blade, he quickly reached down and yanked a handful out of the ground. The older ones, particularly Rouge and Shadow, were a bit cautious, but gave it a try; as she did, the former mentally noted that she would tell Shadow to help her get some back to her home for herself. All of them found it very tasty, even Froggy; it was similar to cotton candy, only in a newer form.

When they looked up, they saw Monty glancing around the valley with a worried expression. But then, upon noticing their stares, he flashed a smile and said, "If you want, you can go explore and try out the other things in this room; they're just as good, if not better. Just don't leave the valley, and be careful around the river!"

With squeals of delight, the younger Mobians and Amy darted off onto a beaten path into the valley, to search for more things to taste. Tails trailed after them. Rouge took to the sky, wanting to get a bird's-eye view of the whole room to see what she might want, and Shadow, who saw this as a good time to wander off and be alone for a while, skated for the valley's more secluded areas. Espio went after Charmy; he didn't want to let him out of his sight—who knew what trouble he could get into. Big lumbered off towards the river, with Froggy clinging on tightly to his shoulder.

Knuckles stayed at the top of the hill, watching the rest go with a thoughtful complexion. He considered joining Tails, but then had noticed the greedy light in the purple cat's eyes and thought about following him instead. _Letting that pig in a cat's suit in here is like setting a bull loose in a china shop,_ he thought. _Something bad is bound to happen._ But then something else caught the echidna's eye.

Monty had also stayed put, but his focus was not on the guests. He had resumed his nervous search, but this time he seemed to spot something down in a low part of the valley that resembled a swamp, and he dove toward it. By now the Guardian's curiosity had been aroused, and he ran after him as quietly as he could.

He reached the swamp moments after Monty did, but at the same time he nearly announced his presence; he tripped and fell into a puddle full of edible grass and a dark-brown, thick substance. Cautiously he put a dirty finger into his mouth and tasted it; it was, much to his disgust, dark chocolate. He made a face but forced himself to swallow it; he hadn't gotten himself covered in chocolate just to be discovered by his target. Stealthily he lifted himself out of the puddle and stalked after the fading figure in the forest.

The swamp wasn't entirely ugly; rather, it had a humid, exotic look to it. Many of the trees had wide, thick, dark-brown trunks, and their leaves covered the entire region in a thick canopy of green. Occasionally a beam of light from the room's lights would seep through and touch the ground, which seemed to be made of a solid version of dark chocolate and an earthier variation of the sugar-grass. But the swamp floor was submerged in chocolate that flowed from the main river to the lowlands, and it mixed with the ground to make an interesting blend. Most of the time Knuckles was wading through the stuff, trying to reach the little islands that occasionally came up; but every now and then he would take a wrong step and fall into a pool that went up to his neck. It was hard going, but he was used to such conditions; after all, part of Angel Island was a swamp full of abnormally large mushrooms. All the same, he was relieved when his Monty halted.

The light-blue Chao hovered onto a short, red mushroom with white polka-dots sitting in a sunlit clearing, wiped his forehead and threw a glance over his shoulder. He felt like he wasn't alone, but he didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. But, because the red echidna had become covered in dark chocolate and forest-green sugar-grass, he couldn't see him. Knuckles was thankful for the camouflage he had unwittingly put on himself, and he hid behind a clump of bushes, waiting, though he didn't know what for. But something did happen.

Another Chao flew into the clearing. It was a plain Chao and wore no clothes as Monty did, but it had the same apprehensive look on its normally happy face. It sat in front of Monty and began speaking in the babble of the Chao language. Unfortunately, Knuckles didn't understand it, and he had to sit and listen to the gibberish for several minutes.

* * *

Meanwhile, high above the valley, Rouge flew in wide circles, scouting the land. Several times she had stopped to test a strange food she had spotted from the air, and many of them were to her liking (again she told herself to get Shadow to take more for her private stock). But she always flew back up, wanting to see the far reaches of the Chocolate Room, which had stirred within the treasure hunter an intense curiosity. But over time this curiosity had turned into puzzlement, for Rouge had noticed a tiny detail missing in the entire scene…

She wasn't the only one, of course. The other two who happened to notice something amiss were Tails and Shadow. The fox, although thoroughly enjoying himself in his exploration with Amy, Cream, Cheese, Charmy, and Espio, remained observant as he hunted for new things to try in the valley. As he was picking fruit from a tree that bore real candy apples, he looked around him…and couldn't help but realize that all of the trees and bushes were untouched by other hands. That was strange, considering one thing he had remembered: if this was the heart of the factory, then why wasn't there anyone picking the candy?

With Shadow, it came to him as he was resting under a tree next to a meadow full of buttercups. He had wandered off by himself to be alone; however, he had expected to be bothered by curious workers. But so far, he had not seen a single one.

Where were the rest of the Chao?

Not even Knuckles was sure as he watched the only other Chao he had seen finish its conversation with Monty, who looked even more nervous than before. Although he had not understood a single word they had spoken, he could easily tell what their feelings were: worry, anxiousness…and _fear._ …But fear of what?

Finally the Chao flew off and vanished into the swamp, and Monty departed with a sigh. The Guardian trailed him out of the swamp and, after cleaning himself off, trotted off to find the others; he sensed that the guide Chao wouldn't tell him anything, and he needed to tell someone about his findings. Tails seemed to be the best choice.

It didn't take long for him to find the two-tailed fox with the two Chaotix, Amy, Cream, and Cheese at the chocolate waterfall, admiring it. Rouge and Shadow were also there, and she was trying to shout to him over the roar of the falls that she wanted her own waterfall. Rather than scream until his voice was hoarse, the echidna used a hand gesture to bring Tails away from the rest.

"What's up, Knuckles?" he inquired, seeing the puzzled expression on his partner's face.

"I don't know what exactly, Tails, but something isn't right."

"What do you mean? This place seems fine to me."

"It's not the room. It's Monty. He been acting really—"

A shout from Cream interrupted him.

"Mr. Big, I don't think you're supposed to do that!"

Everyone looked up and saw that, on the other side, Big was bending over the river and drinking the chocolate from cupped hands as fast as he could. Nearby, Froggy sat on a purple rock made of the same candy as jawbreakers, abandoned and unable to stop him.

"Uh oh," mumbled Tails.

Knux rolled his eyes. "Had to expect that glutton to stick his hands where they don't belong."

Monty had heard the commotion and had flown down to check on the five winners and their friends. He gasped at the sight of Big guzzling the chocolate, and he dove down towards him, urging him to stop.

"Stop, Mr. Cat, sir! Master Wonka insists that his chocolate be untouched by people's hands! Please stop!"

Suddenly Tails cried out, "Big, you're leaning too far out! Be careful!"

The warning came too late. With an astonished cry, the purple cat fell head-first into the chocolate river. Several of the others gasped and ran to the riverbank, and Froggy hopped off his rock and searched the river for his pal, croaking in panic. Then Big emerged, gasping and yelling in fright; the chocolate was much thicker than water, and was nearly impossible to swim in.

"Won't somebody help him?" whimpered Cream. "And look at poor Froggy! He wants to jump in!"

Monty waved his arms frantically. "No, no, no! Don't let him jump in! He'll contaminate the chocolate even more!"

A flash of orange went by them, and they saw Tails leap off the riverbank and fly to the other side. He grabbed Froggy before he could leap into the river, flew back across, and handed him to Knuckles, who looked a little uncomfortable holding the squirming amphibian. But the fox barely noticed; already he was flying across the river again, this time with Big as his target. He figured that if he could carry both Knuckles and Sonic, then he could lift Big out of the chocolate river.

Unfortunately for the violet feline, Tails had underestimated his weight, and he hadn't done any heavy lifting for a long time. He tried several times, but was unable to lift him out of the river. After the third attempt, Big was sucked under the surface by a nearby pipe. Defeated, Tails returned to the riverbank with his friends. While keeping Froggy under one arm, Knuckles put his free hand on his friend's shoulder and gave him a look that said, "You tried."

Suddenly Amy gasped and pointed. "Look! Big is in that pipe!"

Indeed, Big appeared in the pipe that had sucked him under. When he was about halfway, he suddenly stopped moving; his huge body was stopping the flow of chocolate in the pipe. He constantly looked under him, above him, and at them through the glass pipe, his yellow eyes wide with terror. He struggled to free himself, but he didn't budge an inch.

"He's stuck!" cried Cream.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "The pressure will fix that. Just watch."

Tense silence followed, and everyone watched intently to see what would happen. They could see the gushing chocolate underneath Big coursing faster and faster, and the pipe was sucking harder and harder, taxing itself to pull up its quota of chocolate. Then suddenly, just as Shadow had predicted, the chocolate pushed Big completely through with enormous force, and he vanished into the ceiling with a muffled cry of surprise. There was a gasp of shock from the guests, and then all of them, including Froggy, became quiet.

Finally Amy asked, "Wh-what will happen to him, Monty?"

Rouge grinned wickedly and replied, "He's probably being made into marshmallows as we speak."

Cream screamed in terror, and the color drained from Amy's face. Tails gulped, inwardly beating himself over the head again for not rescuing Big. Although Froggy was unable to understand the bat's words, the others' reactions made him squirm and croak even more, and Knuckles had a hard time restraining him.

"That's impossible!" Monty blurted confidently. "He won't be made into marshmallows!"

Rouge decided to keep playing with the joke. "And why not?"

"Because that pipe doesn't go to the marshmallow room! It goes to the room where Master Wonka makes all kinds of tasty fudge!"

"Then he'll be made into fudge!" Cream wailed.

The Chao grinned. "Don't worry, I won't let it happen. Can you imagine anybody eating Big-flavored, chocolate-coated Cat? Yuck!"

The rabbit gave him an exasperated look. She had had enough jokes.

"Okay, just kidding! I'll send a few friends of mine up there to get him out of the vats!" He whistled and, to the guests' astonishment, three Chao flew out of a grove of trees, including the one that Knuckles had seen earlier. Monty told them, "Take Froggy, go up to the Fudge Room, and poke around in the vats for our friend Big. He shouldn't be too hard to find!"

The trio nodded their heads, and two of them took Froggy from Knuckles, holding his sides. This time the frog didn't resist; he sensed that they were going to help him find his best friend. With plenty of effort they carried him off into the air out of sight; the third stayed a bit longer to question Monty about something in a hushed voice, and then he followed his companions.

While the gang watched them leave on their mission, Tails turned to Knuckles, his ears drooping, and said in a low voice, "I could have saved him. Sonic would have…"

The echidna responded, "You did everything you could; I doubt Sonic would have done any better. So quit blaming yourself. If anybody's responsible for Big being made into fudge, it's himself. His gluttony was his ruin."

"…Do you think he'll really be made into fudge, Knuckles?"

He shrugged, not sure how to answer. He hoped it wouldn't happen; Amy and Cream liked Big after all, gluttonous with chocolate as he was. But anything was possible in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory…


	12. Voyage of the WWS Sweettooth

**Quick Author's Note:** This is one of the chapters in this part that did get some major changes. I lengthened the journey of the ship and tried to make it more exciting. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter #11: Voyage of the _W.W.S. Sweet-tooth_

For a while the group of remaining Mobians stared at the grove of peppermint-colored trees where the Chao carrying Froggy had gone, but they had long since disappeared from sight. Many of them wore worried frowns on their faces, thinking of Big and wondering what his fate would be. (Rouge, Shadow, and Espio didn't look as concerned.) But then Monty spoke again with optimism.

"Don't worry about Mr. Big; my friends will find him in no time. He'll come out all right!"

There was a pause, and then Amy, Cream, and Cheese turned to him with small smiles. He was their guide to the chocolate factory; they could trust his word.

Then Rouge stiffened and pricked her ears up. There was a strange noise reaching her ears…

"What's that sound?" she said out loud.

The others looked at her, and then tilted their heads to listen. And they also heard it: a steady, deep thumping noise. It seemed to be coming from an arched canyon on the other side of the river; chocolate from another part of the valley came through it. The noise grew in volume, and they looked at Monty for an explanation. His smile grew even wider, and a bright light twinkled in his blue eyes.

"Anybody up for a boat cruise?"

Just as the words left his mouth, the source of the thrumming emerged from the canyon. The guests gaped at the sight gliding through the chocolate river towards them.

It was a massive, bright-pink boat with a tall front and a tall back, molded to resemble a seahorse. It moved by way of oars, which were each manned by at least ten Chao wearing matching pink jumpsuits; these suits identified them as oarsmen amongst their peers. At the bow (front) of the ship, there was the true source of the strange noise: a Chao beating on an old-fashioned drum to help his companions keep a rowing rhythm. At the other end, there were four benches larger than those for the oarsmen, apparently for their master and any possible guests.

The drummer halted his beat, and the Chao lifted their oars out of the water. As a result, the pink boat slowed to a stop close by Monty and the guests. The former waved his formless paw to it dramatically and proclaimed, "This is Master Wonka's private sailing vessel: the _W.W.S. Sweet-tooth!"_

"Original," Rouge commented, impressed by the vessel and inwardly wanting one just like it.

The guide Chao heard the compliment and smiled. "The ship is actually made out of a huge boiled sweet! Don't worry, she's perfectly seaworthy…err, river-worthy. Isn't she beautiful? She's the best one out of several others we're working on!"

Some of the oarsmen put out a ramp to the ground, and Monty flew across it; when he gestured for them to follow, the winners and their partners came aboard and took their seats at the stern (back of the ship). At a signal from his superior, the Chao at the drum resumed his routine, and the oarsmen got the _Sweet-tooth_ moving once more.

The pace was nice and slow, and the guests were able to see many other parts of the Chocolate Room that they had been unable to explore. Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Charmy were excited the most; every ten or so seconds one would cry out and point at something amazing on one side of the boat. Rouge also took advantage of the view and recited to Shadow the things she wanted from the room, much to his annoyance.

Tails and Knuckles also observed the scenery, but they were quiet, except for when Tails spotted something that greatly interested him; then he would get Knuckles' attention and point at it. For a while, Monty watched the pair, and then an idea came to his mind. Nobody noticed when he went to the very back of the ship, brought two green coffee mugs out of a small container, and flew off the ship. But the fox and echidna noticed him return; now the mugs were filled with chocolate straight from the river.

"Here, drink this!" he said to them, handing each of them a mug. "You guys look like you could use it!"

"Thanks," Tails said with a smile. Then, cupping his drink with both hands, he closed his eyes and took a sip. His eyes opened in surprise at its warm, rich, creamy taste, and he quickly drank half of it. Licking his lips, he said to Monty, "Wow! It tastes great!"

The peppy guide returned the grin. "I'm glad you like it! The waterfall method really makes a difference, doesn't it?"

Knuckles, who drank all the chocolate from his mug and had a similar reaction, set it down next to him. "Heck yeah," he agreed, and then added, "Haven't had something like this in a long time."

"It's the least I could do for your efforts with Big and Froggy," Monty said. Then, his eyes taking on a look of respect, he told Tails, "That was really kind of you."

The boy finished his drink and shrugged with a sad smile. "Yeah, but I didn't get him out."

"It's the thought that counts!" He wanted to say more, but then Espio interrupted him.

"Is that a tunnel up ahead?"

The boat had come into a cove surrounded by chocolate cliffs; but near one end, a low, wide opening had been carved into the base of the cliff. The chocolate river continued on through it. But there was no light in the tunnel, and they couldn't see where it went. The Chao at the oars showed no signs of slowing, though, and turned the boat toward it. In fact, the drummer stepped up the pace a little.

Knuckles shifted nervously in his seat. He didn't like the looks of that tunnel one bit. "Uhh…shouldn't we be slowing down?" he asked. "It looks pretty dark in there."

Monty shook his head. "No need. The lights further on will show us the way."

The _W.W.S. Sweet-tooth_ continued into the darkness of the tunnel, with its oarsmen speeding up by a fraction. Then, as Monty had said, the lights came on; their colors alternated between white, blue, and yellow throughout the tunnel. But when they came on, the passengers stiffened in shock.

The tunnel didn't continue straight forward. Instead, it suddenly dipped in a sharp downward angle, and the sweet-boat plunged down with it!

The passengers cried out in surprise and gripped their seats. Goaded by the rowers, the boat increased its speed down the slide. Everyone could tell that they were really moving, just by looking at the walls; they were rushing by in a blur. Then a curved left turn appeared up ahead, and the rowers adjusted the angle of their oars; leaning hard to the left, the ship negotiated the turn without losing speed.

The Mobians were a little breathless, but the Chao rowers were hardly fazed by the feat. Monty was actually grinning, and he even let out a whoop as the boat whizzed through the turn.

The tunnel bent into a couple more turns, but after them, the slide leveled out; with the change, the pink sweet-boat lost momentum and settled into a less bumpy ride. The tunnel also widened, and large, round, vault-like doors with bright, neon labels appeared along the river, complete with narrow walkways and cement docks where the sweet-boat could come to rest. The ship also glided by several other tunnels that either opened into the main channel or branched off from it. But Monty only gave them a quick glance before he told the rowers to keep their vessel on the main river.

But the first part of the journey was a kiddie ride compared to what happened next.

The _W.W.S. Sweet-tooth_ began to slow down, and the guests soon found out why: they had reached an opening into a huge, circular chamber. All around them there were more openings, again splitting into inlets and outlets. Monty hovered above Tails and Knuckles and instructed the oarsmen toward the tunnel he wanted to take. As they were moving towards it, Tails heard a loud splashing noise and peeked around the back of the boat. His ears pricked up, and he blinked several times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. His companion noticed.

"What's up, Tails?"

"Knuckles, look at that," Tails said, pointing at a distant shape on the other side of the chamber. "There's another ship behind us, and it's cinnamon-red."

The others heard them, and also looked back to see the massive boat that had just entered the chamber. Then they witnessed yet another puzzling sight—Monty's face drained of all color, and his eyes bugged out of his head. Then he turned to the drummer and stammered, "F-full speed ahead, quickly!"

His peers quickly caught on to his urgency and rowed faster. Some of the Mobians gasped when they were pitched backward slightly, and all of them gripped their seats or one side of the boat.

"Wh-what's going on?" asked a bewildered Tails.

Knuckles was forced to yell over the combined noise of the Chao drum, splashing chocolate, and grunting of the oarsmen. "I don't know, but hang on!"

Monty flew down and clung to the bench space between the fox and the Guardian. "Good advice!" he shouted. "It's gonna get worse further down!" He whimpered a few more things, but no one could hear him over the racket.

The crew and the passengers of the _Sweet-tooth_ quickly found out what their captain meant. The chosen tunnel suddenly turned into an even larger tunnel, where the chocolate changed into rapids—a churning, swirling river of sweetness. The instant the boat entered the current, their voyage was transformed from a peaceful pleasure trip into a violent, perilous race.

The chocolate pulled the pink sweet-boat deeper into the tunnel with a sharp, fierce jerk; it came in sideways at first, but the current yanked the bow of the ship to the left, straightening it. The oarsmen fought to keep control of their vessel, but it was clear that the river had too strong a hold, and it could take it wherever it pleased. A couple times the boat veered very close to the tunnel walls, avoiding a collision by inches. And twice, the current actually turned it in a different direction, either with a side facing the tunnel path or with it going completely backwards. Despite this danger, which threatened to capsize their vessel, the oarsmen struggled to get their bearings and direct it down the tunnel at as speedy a rate as they could manage.

The real danger came from the columns that connected the ceiling and the bottom of the river. Many of them were spread out in the tunnel, making them obstacles that the boat needed to avoid. They brushed close by a few of them, and a terrible image of the sweet-bot colliding and splitting in half on a column flashed through everyone's minds.

Then, just as suddenly as the wild ride began, it ended. The _W.W.S. Sweet-tooth_ turned about with the bow in front and took one more curve; the tunnel narrowed, and the chocolate river settled down to a relaxed pace once more. Seeing that the rowers had full control of their ship again, Monty directed them to a side tunnel that was dimly lit. The pink sweet-boat quietly slipped into it, and negotiated one more turn.

A little further beyond the entrance to the tunnel, the ship came upon a cement dock. Behind that dock was a large, round, aluminum door that read in neon-lit, blue letters "The Inventing Room: Authorized Personnel ONLY". Upon seeing this door, Monty leaped up from his seat.

"Stop! Stop the boat!" he cried to the oarsmen. "This is the perfect place!" His fellow Chao pulled backward very hard on their oars, and the intrepid pink ship made a graceful stop at the dock.

"Why are we stopping here, Monty?" Cream asked him as he and a few other Chao set the ramp down.

The cheerful twinkle had returned to the guide's eyes, and he answered secretively, "You'll see!"

While he talked quietly with the drummer, the eight Mobians (and Cheese) walked down the ramp and onto the ground. The moment Knuckles did this, he bent down and kissed the dock.

"Land! Sweet, solid land!" he exclaimed. The girls giggled at his antics.

All of them wobbled on their feet for a few seconds, trying to get their land legs back. By the time they had accomplished this, Monty had flown past them to the big door. Eager to see what was behind it, the youngest ones darted after him. Only Knuckles looked back to see the _Sweet-tooth _being anchored to the dock with licorice ropes; its crew kept looking nervously back the way they had come. Then Monty's voice got his attention.

"This is a very important room to Master Wonka! Like the name states, it contains all his secret inventions! But please! Don't fool around while you're in here! No touching or tasting anything! Agreed?"

"Agreed!" chorused eight voices, and Cheese put his own "Chao!" in.

Monty opened the door slightly, and he and his troupe walked into the room beyond…


	13. The Inventing Room and Amy's Gummy Mess

Chapter #12: The Inventing Room and Amy's Gummy Mess

The Inventing Room was to an inventor what a well-equipped lab is to a scientist—paradise. Its size rivaled that of the Chocolate Room, though the ceiling was lower. Everywhere there were cauldrons, pots, pans, and machines full of who-knew-what, and new, rich smells emanated from them. Smoke rose up from some of the pots and machinery, and the room echoed with noises—machines cranking, concoctions bubbling, kettles hissing, and the gurgling of the network of pipes overhead.

The eight Mobians observed the busy scene in silence; it was so loud that they probably wouldn't have heard each other had they talked. Tails was the most interested, being an inventor himself. Cream and Cheese stared at everything with wide eyes, and the former nearly fell backward while looking up at the pipes. Rouge, very disturbed by the room's noises, put her hands over her ears and scowled. Charmy moved to explore the room, but Espio grabbed the back of his jacket and held him in place.

"This room doubles as a testing room for all of Master Wonka's latest ideas and projects!" Monty told them over the noise, quite used to it. "It's one of his favorite places to hang out! One time he stayed in here all day, testing new flavors for bubble gum! C'mon, I'll show you some of his working creations!"

He flew off down a path through the maze of machines and cooking tables, and the guests had to jog to keep up. As they walked, it was apparent that Monty liked the Inventing Room just as much as Willy Wonka did. Sometimes he would stop and taste, sniff, or watch the contents of the pots, and the results delighted him. Other times he would fiddle with the machines, add an ingredient to a mixture, or transfer it to a different pot, pan, or oven.

At one point, they came to a place in the room where there were stacks of crates piled high until they nearly touched the ceiling. Monty took a clipboard hanging on a wall nearby and checked the list on it.

"Let's see…has the entire shipment of creams come in today?" he asked himself. He looked up and counted off the labeled crates. "Dairy cream, whipped cream, violet cream, coffee cream, pineapple cream, vanilla cream, and…yes, the hair cream's here too! That's all of them!"

"_Hair_ cream?" Amy exclaimed. "What do you use _that_ for?"

"For something called Hair Toffee!" the Chao replied. "We've been working on it for a while! Whoever eats it will have a new crop of hair sprouting out of his head in half an hour! We've made other versions that also grow a beard or a mustache! I also suggested making new flavors that give the hair different colors, like blue or hot pink!"

Cream, Cheese, and Charmy began looking at the others and imagining them with weird hairstyles, mustaches, and/or beards. The images made them giggle and clutch their sides. Shadow scowled at them out of the corner of his eye, but they only glanced at him once and roared at the idea of him having a pink mohawk, a green mustache, and a blue beard.

Monty grinned; he had an idea of what they were laughing about. "Pretty funny, huh? I lost it when I first heard about it. But we haven't gotten the mixture quite right yet; it works too well. One of our Chao testers tried it a month ago, and now we have to cut all the hair with a lawn mower to keep it under control! But I'm sure Master Wonka will get it right one day!"

He moved on down the path, and the guests followed him. They stopped a minute later in front of a table with three two-liter bottles full of what looked like soda. Each liquid was a different shade of brown, and each bottle had a label on it. In order, the labels read: "Butterscotch Soda", "Butter-gin", and "Fizzy Lifting Drink".

"These are some drinks Mr. Wonka wants to try selling," the guide Chao explained. "We Chao love them all. The Fizzy Lifting Drink is different than most; it contains a gas that will lift you off the ground like a balloon! To come back down, you burp! We're a little worried about customers trying it outdoors, though. They might never come back if they don't burp."

Once again he flew off, and the Mobians trotted after him. They passed several other interesting areas, but Monty only slowed a little and explained a tiny bit about each creation. It seemed that he was in a hurry; so much to see but so little time, he said. As they walked, Tails began a conversation with Monty about the needed fixes to some of the candy concoctions, and several of them listened in. Knuckles watched the fox from behind him with a small grin, pleased that his friend was opening up and enjoying himself. Rouge turned to Shadow and began rambling about the things she wanted from here, and he reluctantly wrote them down in his notepad with a frown. Amy, Cream, and Cheese resumed staring at the bubbling cauldrons and machines. But as the former spotted a steaming pot full of a blue liquid, she thought of a certain friend with the same hue. She stopped in her tracks.

Would Sonic have enjoyed a tour through the factory?

On impulse, her right hand reached into her pocket for the huge packet of chewing gum she kept with her at all times. She pulled it out…and her eyes went wide.

It was empty. She had used up the last strip of gum in the Chocolate Room.

The pink hedgehog began to panic; her hands shook and her forehead was dotted with sweat. She needed her gum! Thoughts of her missing hero had driven her nuts with worry before she had started the habit; now she depended on them to keep those thoughts away. Where was she going to find more gum?

_Maybe Mr. Wonka has some in here, _she thought, and bit her lip._ It might not be ready for chewing yet…but I need gum, __**now!**_ Her mind made up, she darted into a nearby area marked "Gum".

Unlike most areas, this one had no tables or kitchens. A gigantic machine stood in the very center. The main body had two halves; the top half was a round, glass tub with a hole in the bottom and a cover for that hole, and the bottom half was for processing whatever went into it. All around the main piece were smaller containers with pipes at the top that held a rainbow of colored liquids. The pipes connected to the top of the main machine. On the front of it, there was a big, shiny, red button.

Amy came close to the strange contraption and stared at it. It didn't look like a gum-making machine to her. …But then again, she didn't know what a gum-making machine looked like, so why should she judge? Shrugging, she pressed the button.

Red lights on the big machine turned on, along with sirens that made her jump back. There was a loud sucking noise, and she realized that the liquids in the smaller tanks were being sucked through the pipes and into the big tub. Once the tub was nearly full, the pipes stopped dripping, and two large beaters (the things you use to mix the ingredients for a cake) inside of the machine lowered and mixed the colors, turning it white. The resulting mixture was drained through the hole into the belly of the machine. There were a few rumblings, and one loud groan as the concoction went through the final stage. A slot came out of the machine, and out of it a small, gray strip emerged. A tinny "ding" announced that the process was finished.

For a moment Amy stared at the strip and the contraption that had produced it. Was that really a piece of chewing gum? Timidly she stretched out her hand, took it, put it into her mouth, and started chewing…

* * *

A minute later, a scream echoed off the walls of the Inventing Room. The others, who had failed to notice Amy's absence before then, whirled around.

"That was Amy!" Tails said with wide eyes. "She must have wandered off!"

"But where could she be?" whimpered Cream. "This place is so large." She held Cheese close, thinking about what had happened to Big. Had her pink friend faced a similar fate?

"Someplace with gum would be a good bet," Knuckles remarked, rolling his eyes.

Monty nodded; he had noticed her gum-chewing habit. "I think I know what she found. Come on!" He flew back down the path with the gang tailing him.

They reached the huge gum machine in no time, and the Mobians gaped at it while their guide searched the area for Amy. A movement near one of the small tanks caught his eye.

"Amy? You there?" he said, flying closer.

The voice of the hedgehog made him halt. "D-don't come any closer," she whimpered. "I look hideous."

Shadow snuck up from behind and examined her with a glance. "You look fine to me. Now come on out." He grabbed her arm and dragged her out, despite her protests.

The rest of the gang blinked in confusion; Amy really did look fine. So why was she acting so upset?

Up until then she had been keeping her hands over her eyes, and then she removed them and looked at herself. "Huh? That's weird. My fur turned light green a second ago, so why—"

Cream interrupted her. "Amy!" she gasped. "You're _purple_!"

She looked at herself on the glass of the tank and shrieked; she had indeed turned a shade of violet. As she backed away and touched her hair, she suddenly turned white, and she screamed again.

"What in the world…?" Knuckles said.

Tails scratched his head, completely perplexed, and then saw Monty leaning against another tank, snickering. "Monty, what's wrong with her?" he asked.

The light-blue Chao stopped laughing and explained. "She found the prototype of a new type of gum Mr. Wonka has been working on. Guess what it reacts to."

The fox looked back at Amy, who had turned purple again. Her face was scrunched up in confusion. Suddenly he knew. "Emotions!" he replied eagerly.

Monty's smile grew wider. "Yep! Each color represents a different emotion. We stuck with what emotions people have already assigned colors to, like red for anger and green for envy. We also added others, like purple for confusion, white for fear, and light green for disappointment!"

"That's so cool!" Charmy quipped.

"Yeah, but there are a few bugs we need to work out," he said reluctantly. "Sometimes its sticks on a color even when the emotion has changed. It's not very serious, luckily. All you need to do is spit it out." He looked at Amy, who had calmed down and was looking at her latest color—orange for amazement. "You'd better spit it out, Amy, before it starts acting up," he warned.

To his surprise, she shook her head and turned burgundy red, which represented stubbornness. "No way, Monty. I need this gum to keep me from worrying about…about…" Again her color changed, this time to light blue for sadness. She looked down at her feet; she couldn't bring herself to say the name.

"Amy, it's for the best," Monty persisted. "Spit it out."

She changed close to her normal pink, obviously embarrassed about something. "Um, I, uh, I can't spit it out. When I first saw myself, I…" She was quiet for a second, and then blurted out, "I swallowed it."

Charmy's eyes grew big. "Uh oh. Now it's gonna stay in your stomach for seven years."

Amy turned back to white. "Wh-what? S-seven _years?"_ In a flash she was a panicky, pale yellow. "I can't go out in public like this for seven years! Monty, do something!"

The poor Chao began to sweat. "I don't think there's anything I can do about it," he admitted. "We just have to wait until the gum leaves your digestive system."

"But that's too long!" Suddenly the girl hedgehog turned bright red and pulled out her hammer. "This is all your fault!" she yelled.

With a squeak of surprise and fright, Monty flew out of the hammer's reach, but his would-be attacker continued swinging right under him.

"Amy, calm down!" Tails told her. "The whole seven years thing is a myth!"

She stopped and stared at him, her body turning enough colors to fill a good-sized crayon box. Red became deep yellow for surprise. "It is?" She went to confused purple. "But so many other people I know say it's true…" Then back to red. "What if you're wrong?" She considered her own words, changing to pink, embarrassed that she had accused Tails of being wrong. "But you're the smartest person I know." Finally she became sorrowful, overwhelmed indigo. "What do I do?" she wailed.

Suddenly the colors changed faster, and Amy stared at herself, confused, but she didn't change to purple. Cream gasped, and Monty said, "She's overloaded the gum!"

His words caused her to panic once more, which didn't help matters at all. "Make it stop, Monty! Make it stop!" she pleaded.

"I can't help this!" he told her, starting to panic himself. "Try to stay calm!"

"You expect me to stay calm at a time like this?" she retorted angrily. The colors went even faster. "You should have an antidote somewhere!"

"We tried to make one, but we got distracted!"

Suddenly the girl rushed past them and out of the area, searching for a possible cure. Monty and her friends shouted for her to stop, but she wouldn't listen. She turned her head to yell back at them…and she collided with a low-hanging pipe from the machine that was making butter-gin. She fell to the floor, out like a light. But her fur continued to change colors at random intervals, a little slower than before.

"_Amy!"_ Cream cried, running to her side. "Amy, are you all right? _Please_ wake up!"

"Chao chao chao," Cheese whimpered.

The others managed to catch up, and Rouge, noticing the pipe and the bruise already on her head, remarked, "That's going to hurt when she wakes up."

Monty took a good look and bit his lip. "I should get her to the east wing. That's where we stay. There's an infirmary there." He whistled, and another trio of Chao appeared out of nowhere with a Mobian-sized stretcher. "I need you guys to take Miss Amy to the infirmary and take a look at her head. Take the _W.W.S. Sweet-tooth_ if it's still in port; it's the fastest way there."

Cream stood up. "I'm going with her!" Cheese added his own "chao" of agreement.

"That's fine with me."

With help from Knuckles, the Chao put Amy into the stretcher. They flew back to the entrance, keeping low to the ground because of her weight. Cream held the back handles for them, and Cheese offered assistance in the front. When they were out of sight, Monty took his hat off and nervously fiddled with it. His master would be upset if she were seriously hurt; he had to be more careful. Then he looked at the other six and cracked a tiny grin. "They'll take good care of her," he said, sure of at least that. "And the show must go on." He flew off once more, and the remaining Mobians—Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Charmy, and Espio—followed him to another exit out of the Inventing Room.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'll bet some of you were wondering why I didn't use the original elimination from the book and movies. Honestly, the idea of blowing Amy up to big proportions seemed kinda "ew" to me. So I put my creativity cap on and came up with the Emotion Gum instead. But lots of reviewers have said it was a neat twist; I'm really glad it turned out well.

You may have also noticed that I didn't put in the Everlasting Gobstoppers. Why? Well, if my memory serves me correctly, Nestle, which owns the real-life Wonka candies (like Nerds), actually made some real Everlasting Gobstoppers. It would have seemed contradictory to put them back in the Inventing Room.

(clears throat) So, two "brats" down, two more to go! And yes, Rouge is up next! (evil grin and maniacal laugh)


	14. Wonka's Squirrels Go Nutty for Rouge

Chapter #13: Wonka's Squirrels Go Nutty for Rouge

The door leading out of the Inventing Room opened into a long, pink hallway with many branches and doors. Monty didn't comment on any doors; judging by his facial expression and jerky movements through the air, he was preoccupied with something. None of the Mobians disturbed him, and each did something to make the trip to the next room less dull. For the billionth time Rouge added to her list of things she wanted, and Shadow jotted them down with a frown. Charmy brought out his handheld game system and resumed battling the aliens in it. Tails used the time to speak with his partner.

"Do you think Amy will turn back to normal, Knuckles?"

He shrugged. "Most likely. Monty said she'll be fine once the gum leaves her system. I don't know how long that'll take, though. I doubt seven years." Then he glanced at Monty and whispered to him, "By the way, have you noticed how he acts sometimes? Like he's hiding something from us?"

The fox also lowered his voice. "I have to admit it, yeah. But I don't know what he could be hiding. He seems too nice for it to be something bad. And I don't think it's just him. The other Chao we've seen all acted pretty nervous."

Suddenly a light bulb came on in Knuckles' head, and he added, "Maybe Wonka's got something to do with it. I haven't seen any sign of him at all. Have you?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I hope nothing bad has happened to him…"

Suddenly Monty halted in front of one set of glass doors labeled "The Nut Room". A few days before, one of his friends had complained of a shortage in walnuts for some of Wonka's nut bars, and nobody had checked the room in days. He figured that this room could be fit in for the tour and flew into the room, the doors sliding open to admit entry for both him and the six guests.

The gang found themselves standing on a blue balcony in a vast chamber with white walls. The floor was painted in a blue-and-white swirl pattern, which ended in the middle in a large hole shaped somewhat like a funnel. The front of the balcony had a locked gate and some steps that led to the bottom. The middle of the ceiling had a huge hole, and a large bowl was suspended below it, filled almost to the brim with walnuts, which fell from the hole. Clear pipes at the bottom fed the nuts into 25 smaller cylinders that stood against the walls. In turn, these containers gave out the nuts into four small indents on a white table approximately every five seconds. In those seconds, the walnuts were taken out one by one and tapped on the table a few times, and if it was satisfactory, the shells were removed without damaging the nut.

Who did this difficult task, you ask? The answer: the only creatures capable of such a feat.

"Squirrels!" Charmy cried, pausing his game to gape at them.

"There must be thousands of them!" Rouge said.

"Actually," Monty interjected, "there are only a hundred. They're efficient enough that we only need that many."

"They're actually doing all that for you?" asked Espio.

"Yeah! They were trained to shell nuts for long periods. In return we give them a percentage of the nuts."

This time Tails asked a question. "Why do they tap the walnuts like that?"

"It's to see if the nut is good or bad. If it turns out to be bad, then they don't open it and toss it down the garbage chute," the Chao replied, and then spied one squirrel sitting on a stool close to them. "Hey, I think that one has a bad nut!"

He was right. The squirrel tapped the nut another time to be sure, and when it heard the telltale hollow sound, it tossed the nut over its shoulder. It rolled down the sloped floor and into the hole.

The six Mobians found the squirrels fascinating—that is, most of them. Shadow was the single exception, as he didn't care much for non-sentient animals like the squirrels. He watched, not amused or awed in the least, and came to notice a tiny detail that appeared to be missed by the rest. Was it just him, or were the squirrels barely keeping up with the mechanisms that dished out the nuts?

"Your master drives them hard," he remarked.

Monty whirled around, his mouth agape in shock. "No he doesn't! He made sure the nut dispenser's speed is good for them! They do well with one nut every ten seconds!"

Tails studied the dispensers and counted the time between each nut. His brow furrowed. "Um, Monty, I'm counting one nut every _five_ seconds."

"Huh?" The guide narrowed his eyes and did the same as the fox, and found him to be correct. "Uh oh. The dispensers must have been fiddled with. I'll hafta fix that soon, 'cause they get very upset when the pace isn't just right."

Several of the group stared at Monty, puzzled by and suspicious of the phrase "fiddled with". But none of them had time to question him, because suddenly Rouge blurted out, "Shadow! I want a squirrel! Buy me a squirrel!"

"There are plenty in the park," the black hedgehog mumbled.

She shot him one of the fiercest looks he had ever seen on anyone's face. "What did you say?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

He quickly rephrased. "Plenty to choose from, I mean." Then he turned to Monty and asked with a sigh, "How much are they?"

"They aren't for sale," he replied, folding his arms and lifting his head; nothing was going to change his mind.

"What!" the bat shrieked, making some of them wince. "But I've _got_ to have one!"

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Face it, batgirl; he isn't selling. Get over it."

She glared at him and then snapped at her partner, "Shadow! Give him anything he wants! Just get me a trained squirrel!"

The said hedgehog cringed and turned to Monty again with a look that said, "help". But, much to his surprise, he only responded in a very accurate mimic of Shadow's own voice.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness; the Chao isn't being fair."

Rouge shot another venomous glare at Monty for the impression, but spoke to Shadow once again. "Then just get me one."

Both Shadow and Monty were startled. "What?" they said in unison.

"I don't care how you get it; I want it _now!"_ she yelled, and booted her hapless companion in his tail section.

The kick sent him flying over the railing of the balcony and onto the floor of the Nut Room. The squirrels stopped shelling walnuts to stare at the newcomer, who quickly stood up, brushed himself off, and rubbed his rear. He looked up at the balcony to see Rouge watching him with a frown and tapping her foot in impatience. With a sigh, he called up to her. "Which one?"

"The neatest one you can find. I don't want a stinky, bad-tempered one in my apartment."

Shadow groaned, wishing she had been more specific. But, dreading her wrath and constant nagging, he casually approached the squirrels on the closest table, which only stared and blinked at him, wiggling their noses. He figured that all he had to do was grab one by the back of its neck and avoid being bitten by the rodent's teeth. Other than that, he thought, they posed no threat to him, the Ultimate Life-form.

Such thinking was his undoing.

While focusing on one squirrel that seemed to fit Rouge's desires for a well-groomed pet, he failed to notice the squirrels on the other side of the room sit on the edge of their stools, watching intensely. Then the black hedgehog lunged at the chosen squirrel. But it leaped off the stool a second before he reached it, and passed under his legs. Growling, he whirled around…and found himself facing a very angry swarm of squirrels. Before he could react, they charged as one massive, brown blur and leaped onto him, knocking him to the ground.

Immediately the rest of the gang was at the edge of the balcony. "Shadow!" Tails cried with genuine worry.

"Quick messing around and get me my squirrel!" Rouge shouted, irritated by the turn in events.

Monty bit his lip for the hundredth time. "Looks like they've gone at that pace for _too_ long. They've never attacked anybody before…at least, as far as I know."

She turned to him with a scowl. "All right, you've had your fun. Now call them off!"

He held up his paws. "I can't do anything about it! They were trained, but not like dogs!"

She snorted and grumbled, "Must I do everything myself?" Then she unfolded her wings and flew down close to the spot where Shadow was struggling with the pack of squirrels, which had planted all four of his limbs firmly on the ground. "Come on, Shadow; get up and help me get my squirrel."

"Does it look like I can?" he snarled back. The humiliation of being overpowered by a hundred non-sentient rodents stung, and he was angry enough that he didn't care anymore about what Rouge thought of him; in fact, he could care less if she tossed him out of his apartment after this.

The white bat sniffed and moved toward him and the squirrels, causing them to look up and watch her approach. They got tense and chattered to each other, and their tails stood erect. Tails saw the signs and shouted, "Rouge, look out!"

But it was too late. Fifty fluffy-tailed rodents converged on her and pinned her limbs and wings to the ground in fifteen seconds flat, despite her loud protests and struggling. Each limb and wing had eight of them on it to hold it down. The remaining two split up and climbed onto Rouge and Shadow's heads. The latter shook furiously to rid himself of the pest, but failed. Then, at the same time, the pair tapped their knuckles on their captives' foreheads.

"What are they doing?" Knuckles asked Monty.

"I think they're testing them to see if they're bad nuts," he replied.

As they spoke, the squirrels leaned their ears against the heads of the ebony hedgehog and the ivory bat. Then they looked up at each other and let out a deep noise that sounded like something between the usual squeak and a growl.

"Uh oh. They _are_ bad nuts," Monty said.

Suddenly the squirrels moved from the limbs of their victims and went under them, putting them on their backs. Both squirmed some more, but couldn't get off. Then the squirrels began to move towards the hole in the center of the room.

"They're gonna throw them into the garbage chute!" Charmy exclaimed excitedly. "Looks like a cool ride!"

Monty gulped. "Maybe, but there's an incinerator at the bottom."

Both unfortunate Mobians heard them, and Rouge turned to her partner with wide eyes and said, "Shadow, I don't want a squirrel anymore!"

"_Now_ you tell me!" he retorted hotly, and then found himself plunging headfirst into the dark hole, with Rouge following a second after him. Their cries faded away into silence, and the squirrels went back to work shelling walnuts like nothing had happened.

Several seconds went by, and no one among the remaining gang spoke; they were still shocked by the attack. Then a Chao cautiously entered the room via the glass doors and whispered to Monty, who nodded happily and dismissed him. "Guess what?" he announced to his troupe. "The incinerator broke down, and there'll be about a week's worth of garbage to break their fall!"

All breathed sighs of relief; although none of them were on the friendliest of terms with Rouge and Shadow, they dreaded the thought of such a demise as the one they had narrowly avoided, and wouldn't wish it upon either one of them.

Monty counted heads and slapped his forehead in astonishment. "Wow! You guys are pulling disappearing acts on me! There are only two winners left!" Then he checked his watch and repeated the gesture. "And we're running out of time! On with the tour!"

He bolted for the doors, and Tails, Charmy, Espio, and Knuckles ran after him, but the latter stopped to look at the Nut Room one last time, and shook his head.

Edible valleys, chocolate rivers, emotion gum, and nutty squirrels—could this place get any crazier?


	15. The Great Glass Elevator

Chapter #14: The Great Glass Elevator

Only moments after leaving the Nut Room, Monty led the two remaining winners and their partners around another corner…only to reveal yet _another_ long, pink hallway lined with doors. All of them were at least slightly discouraged; the Wonka factory was a labyrinth! Would they ever reach the end? Suddenly Espio plopped down on the floor, crossed his legs Indian-style, and folded his arms. Then he closed his eyes and became still. While Tails, Knuckles, and Monty were puzzled by this behavior, Charmy was familiar with it and had an idea why his partner had stopped.

"Tired, Espio?" he quipped.

Out of habit, Monty slapped himself. "Man, am I forgetful today! Touring the whole factory on foot would take weeks! Even Master Wonka didn't see it all in a day! But I think I know of something that could speed things up! Follow me!" With a simple gesture to them, he flew left into another hallway.

Tails and Knuckles were quick to obey, but Espio needed a moment to get up from his very short break. Charmy, being as hyper as ever, flew past the fox and echidna, and even the guide Chao; Monty's words had aroused his trademark curiosity, and he was buzzing with excitement.

"Awesome! I love fast stuff! What is it? Is it a hovercraft? A speedboat? A roller coaster?"

The bee didn't notice that he was nearing the end of the corridor, which had what appeared to be a small room painted light blue. But the others did, and realized he was on a collision course.

"Charmy, stop!" Tails called.

All of a sudden Charmy slammed into something in the doorway to the "room", and with a squeak he fell to the floor, stunned. Espio helped him up, and Monty flew over to a set of buttons to the right of the doorway and pressed one. A familiar "ding" noise reached their ears, and what appeared to be a glass door slid open. Apparently, the "room" was really a shaft, and the mode of transportation was…

"An elevator?" Charmy said, disappointed. "Those are boring! They're too slow and always play stupid music!"

"But this is no _ordinary_ elevator," Monty said with a mischievous grin. "This is the _Great Glass Elevator!_ As its name implies, it's made entirely out of glass! _Normal_ elevators use pulley systems to just go up and down. The Great Glass Elevator runs on a track instead; it can go up, down, sideways, slantways, and in any ways you can think of! It can take you to any room in the entire Wonka factory, no matter where it is! All you have to do is press one of the buttons on the walls here, and _whoosh!_ You're on your way!"

As the Chao eagerly explained this mechanical wonder, he ushered the group inside it. The four studied the numerous rows of buttons dotting the walls. They each had little labels next to them that identified which room the button would take you to if pressed. Some of them sounded rather interesting:

"Toffee-Apple Tree Orchards"

"Wonka Dentist's Office: Home of the Cavity-Filling Caramels"

"Candy-Coated Pencils and Other School Sweets"

"Fizzy Lemonade Swimming Pools"

"Bedrooms with Eatable Marshmallow Pillows"

The list went on with thousands of other names like these, but it was impossible for the Mobians to read them all. Charmy, though curious about the rooms, quickly became impatient and wanted to see how fast the elevator could go.

"I wanna pick a room!" he announced excitedly.

Monty nodded. "Go ahead."

The bee resumed looking at a cluster of buttons, trying to decide which one to press. Knuckles groaned, inwardly just as impatient as him but politely hiding it. But then he spotted a button close by him, and his eyebrows rose.

"Hey, Charmy," he said, "there's one labeled 'Television and Games'. Sound good to you?"

Espio whirled around wide-eyed and waved his hands desperately in a "no" gesture. But it was too late. With a cry of "Definitely!" and a push of the button, Charmy chose their destination. His companion managed to shoot a glare at Knuckles before the Great Glass Elevator lurched into motion…but not in the way they had expected; it went sideways. All of them fell back or into a wall, except for Monty and Charmy, who flew. The former reached up to the ceiling and unhooked several straps attached to it, and Tails, Knuckles, and Espio quickly grabbed hold of one per person.

"Hold on tight! We'll be entering into some really neat rooms soon!" Monty announced.

The Glass Elevator left the closed-in, light-blue shaft and entered into a room with the same color. The gang looked down between their feet at a large, rectangular maze with red walls. In it, about a dozen Chao divided into two teams were quietly flying around, their paws clutching what appeared to be water pistols. Whenever they met up with one who wasn't on their team, they squirted a pink liquid at each other. Even from their perch, the Mobians could hear their shrieks and squeals.

"They're playing with Strawberry-Juice Water Pistols," Monty explained to them. "We also have Gum Bombs and Edible Silly String! They're supposed to be for fun outdoor games and parties."

The next room was even bigger and very different. It was a snow-covered villa with giant gingerbread houses and chocolate hills. On the ceiling there were machines that sprayed a white powder that seemed very similar to snow. Monty identified the place as Gingerbread Heights—one of the places in the factory where the Chao actually resided—and told them that the snow was made of sugar, just like the grass in the Chocolate Room. He also pointed out a tall mountain in the distance—the aptly named Fudge Mountain, the source of all the Wonka fudge.

Again the Elevator entered another tunnel, and the scenery changed. Now they were in a farm setting, with rolling green pastures of sugar-grass and red-and-white barns. There were several clusters of brown and pink in the fenced-in areas, and Knuckles, despite his lack of knowledge with farm fauna, recognized them.

"Cows and sheep?" he said, scratching his head. "What's up with the different colors?"

Monty chuckled. "Those aren't ordinary cows and sheep. The cows make _chocolate_ milk, and the wool from the sheep is actually cotton candy!" He licked his lips and rubbed his tummy. "My favorite noontime snack."

Espio stared at him and shook his head. "Impossible," he muttered under his breath.

They passed into another tunnel with lights, but then the Elevator came to a sudden halt, and dropped down. The shaft became black, and the passengers had no warning for any more directional changes. They yelled and shouted in surprise with a touch of fright at every twist and turn; Monty, however, was the polar opposite, and whooped and shrieked with glee. It was very much like being on a roller coaster!

Suddenly the Great Glass Elevator came out of the dark tunnel, and its occupants found that they were now entering a sparsely lit, silent room with a ceiling and floor that seemed to have no end; it was shaped like a cylinder standing on one base. The Elevator took another drop, but it wasn't quite as fast as some of the other ones it had done. Because of this, the four Mobians and the light-blue Chao were able to see that the room (which was actually one of the many towers in the factory) had decks and alcoves, and that bridges connected these together. Gigantic devices that resembled cannons, antiaircraft guns, machine guns, mortars, and missile launching pads were positioned on some of these platforms. When the Elevator rushed past, the ominous weaponry suddenly came to life. In seconds, the room was filled with the noises of war as they let loose their ammunition: abnormally sized gumballs, jawbreakers, peppermints, and various other hard candies that could pack a wallop.

On instinct, the five ducked their heads when one peppermint cannonball missed by about two yards. They abandoned their straps for the floor, which suddenly seemed safer.

"Monty," Tails shouted over the noise, "is this place safe?"

When he looked at their purple-suited guide, he saw him frantically pressing a button on the ceiling. It was labeled, "Increase Speed". That was the only answer he needed, and he ducked back down again, his heart hammering in his chest. Those weapons were probably dangerous…and it didn't make sense. Why would Willy Wonka make them, then?

The fox was still puzzling over this strange problem (and trying to gather the courage to ask Monty for the answers) when the Glass Elevator suddenly changed direction again and headed for a tunnel in the wall of the room. They passed through with no trouble, and all of them gave sighs of relief as they left the weapons tower. Then Knuckles voiced all of their thoughts.

"What was _that_ all about, Monty? Is Wonka some kinda weapons fanatic?" he snapped, his purple eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The Chao only shook his head nervously and darted back and forth as much as the cramped Elevator would allow. Every time he opened his mouth to answer, he stammered and constantly changed whatever words he spoke right after saying them. In the end, it sounded like gibberish.

"Maybe he's in shock," Espio whispered to the others.

Tails bit his lip and said, "Let's leave him alone and wait for him to calm down." Knuckles and Espio nodded in agreement.

The rest of the ride passed with no further talk between the four guests and their tour guide, who continued his antics and constantly threw terror-filled glances over his shoulder. The Glass Elevator coasted along at a smooth pace, and they encountered no more unexpected twists or turns. Rather, the Elevator would climb and descend very slowly with no jerks or drops. Some rooms passed by, but none were of great interest.

A minute passed, and then Tails noticed that the Elevator was slowing down. He looked forward into the tunnel and saw an open doorway in the wall. The Elevator came to a complete stop at that very place, and, after a now-calm Monty pressed a button, the glass door opened.

"Well, we're here!" he said, some of his perkiness coming back. "The Television and Games Room! I'm actually kinda glad you chose this room, Charmy, because Master Wonka is working on something _very_ special in here! I think you'll like it most of all. But _please_ don't touch anything unless I give permission! Okay?"

The bee smartly saluted. "Aye aye, sir! Let's see it, let's see it!" He dove out of the Great Glass Elevator and into the white hallway. The rest simply walked; Tails and Knuckles both resumed thinking about the creepy tower, and Espio was reluctant to find out what lay behind the white door at the end of the hall. Monty flew at his normal pace, and he looked cool and relaxed.

…But his eyes reflected the battle raging on inside him—a battle between his confidence and his fears, with the tower encounter adding anxiety to both sides. But he wasn't afraid of the Television and Games Room; he knew what to expect in there.

…_Or so he thought…_


	16. Game Over for Charmy, and a Discovery

Chapter #15: Game Over for Charmy…and a Shocking Discovery

Beyond the white door to the Television and Games Room was a dark, narrow hallway. When the door closed behind them, the four Mobians and Monty were left in darkness. It took them a minute to get used to it, and when they were ready, they continued walking down the hallway, feeling the walls to guide them. Monty, being familiar with the room, found the door at the end and opened it.

They were greeted with sudden flashes of light and loud noise, and they all took a step back and covered their eyes. After blinking several times, Tails, Knuckles, Espio, and Charmy looked and saw that they were standing in something like a video arcade/lounge. Old arcade games (the sources of all the noise and flashes, since they were all on) were lined up against the left and right walls, and three plasma televisions took up the wall opposite them. In front of each TV was a semicircle of couches, chairs, and coffee tables; often there was a game system on the latter.

Charmy's eyes grew wide, and a huge grin spread across his face. "This is _my_ kinda room!" he cried. Espio grabbed him by the jacket before he could explore. If he didn't keep a tight hold on him, he would never be able to get him out of the room.

"I thought so," Monty said with a smile. "This isn't really much of a workplace, rather the opposite. Master Wonka and we Chao like to come here on our breaks. But there are a couple other rooms we use for making commercials. Lately Master has been up to something neat involving television and games. Follow me!"

He flew past the televisions and arcade games to a back door, and the group followed him. He opened the door into a white room with bright lights, and they had to blink some more to adjust. The room was almost the same size as the previous one, but didn't have as much furniture. In one area there were several desks with computers on them, and on the other side was another plasma TV with two white armchairs (one Mobian-sized and one Chao-sized) and a coffee table in front of them. The guide Chao flew over to one of the desks, picked up a thick book, and showed them to his posse.

"_Programming Video Games for Morons_?" Knuckles read aloud, cocking an eyebrow.

"He's making a video game!" Charmy exclaimed, doing a joyful flip in the air.

"Why a video game?" asked Espio.

Monty replied, "Master said that we could profit from a game that is about the factory and the candy and chocolate we sell. He told me some fast-food restaurant has a game already."

"That would be Hamburger Palace!" quipped Charmy, familiar with the relatively unknown game.

"What's the Wonka game about?" Tails asked.

The light-blue Chao shrugged. "I dunno. I think he told me before that you get to explore the factory and hunt for Golden Tickets…" he scratched his head, "or was it special types of candy? I can't remember." But then he grinned at Charmy. "But he told me that he has the first two levels ready for testing! Maybe a true gamer like you could…" He left his sentence hanging, letting the bee reply to his subtle offer.

He vigorously nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! I'll try it out!"

He darted for the coffee table and picked up a controller. (A/N: It resembled a standard Playstation one, only this one was purple and had the Wonka logo in the center.) Monty went over to turn on the console (which was purple, had a rectangular shape with smooth corners, and again had the Wonka logo). Then he used a remote to also turn on the TV. Charmy sat down in the armchair, and the others gathered behind him to watch.

For a while, nothing happened, and then the screen displayed the words "Level 1" in big, white letters, and in smaller font "Mission Objective: Enter the factory and find the Main Lobby".

"'Mission Objective'?" Tails said, puzzled.

"Sounds a little military-like, Monty," Knuckles remarked.

The Chao scratched his head. "You're right; that's weird. …Oh well. Master probably wanted to make the object of the game sound important or something."

Again, there was a long pause, and Charmy muttered something like "These loading times are ridiculous for a console of this generation". Then, finally, the screen became brighter as the level booted up. The letters faded, and suddenly they saw the front lawn of the factory. It was very accurate, down to the last falling snowflake. The five murmured in awe. Then Charmy tilted the control stick forward; there was the soft crunching sound of footsteps on top of snow, and the factory became a little closer.

"It's in first person," commented the bee. "Neat!"

Monty, however, scratched his head again. "Funny; Master was going to have us Chao be the playable characters, and put it in third person."

"He must've changed it," retorted Charmy with a shrug, not looking away from the game.

A moment later, Charmy made it to the front doors, and he pressed one of the action buttons to open them. He walked down the dark hallway until a light came on, revealing the familiar puppet stage. The puppets began their song-and-dance routine…but then something strange happened.

A window appeared at the bottom of the screen, and letters and words began to appear in it, going from the left to the right. It read: "What an annoying song. Why don't you do something about it?" Then a symbol on the lower right of the screen prompted Charmy to press another action button. Monty blinked in confusion, and then opened his mouth to tell the bee to wait a second. But he was too late; Charmy pressed the button.

A strange arm covered by a black glove and what appeared to be the sleeve of a black coat—the arm of the player—threw a small object at the stage, and seconds later there was an explosion. The gang jumped an inch or two in the air; none of them had expected that to happen. They watched in horror as the puppets nearest to the explosion were blown to pieces.

"A grenade?" exclaimed Knuckles. Once again he thought of the tower full of candy-shooting, heavy weaponry. Was Wonka a weapons fanatic like he thought?

Monty didn't respond; rather, he took his hat in his formless paws and fiddled with it nervously. Master hadn't mentioned using weapons in the game. What was with all these strange changes?

Then something else happened: some of the puppets that had not been injured by the grenade hopped off of their platforms and moved toward the player, arms extended. The rest threw large spoons at him, and the screen flashed red.

"Ouch!" Charmy cried, even though he himself had not really been hurt. "What's up with these guys? Man, I need some kinda weapon…"

His wish was quickly granted; he pressed another button, and the same right arm appeared, this time holding what appeared to be a laser blaster. He held down the fire button, and the blaster cut down the puppets in only ten seconds. With a cry of victory, Charmy continued forward, past the stage, and into the labyrinth of corridors beyond.

As he was navigating the halls, his audience shuffled nervously whenever he was forced to fight more puppets (and complain about the tacky weapons and the horrible camera all the while). The game seemed too violent for such a person as Willy Wonka. Monty was the most concerned, since he knew Wonka's original plans for the game; this prototype was nothing like the concept he was familiar with!

Finally, after two intense minutes of shooting, jumping, frequent lag, physics glitches, and control bugs, Charmy reached the Lobby. And in the center of the room was a floating folder with the words "Secret Recipe: Do Not Open" in big, red letters.

At the sight of this item the little Chao's eyes grew several sizes; suddenly things began to make sense to him. "Turn it off," he said in tiny, frightened voice.

"Huh? What?" Charmy said, turning around to look at him.

"Turn it off! Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!" he cried, frantically waving his arms.

One would think that Monty's behavior would have convinced Charmy to turn off the game; but his obsession with the game ran deeper than any of them had ever thought. He hadn't played a new game in several months, and not one as challenging as this one, either. And he didn't understand the significance or meanings of the weapons and the secret recipe folder. All these reasons led to his reply.

"No way! This is fun!" He turned back to the game and exclaimed happily when he saw that Level 2 was next. But joy turned to frustration when he realized another long period of loading was coming first.

"Charmy…" Espio began.

"Monty," interrupted Tails, "why should he shut it off?"

The Chao guide whimpered, "The game's been tampered with. It could be sending a signal to some other area of the factory."

Knuckles joined in the questioning. "What do you mean? Be more specific!"

"There's no time! We need to shut it off and leave right now!"

Charmy, who was right in the middle of battling more puppets in the Chocolate Room, paused the game and turned around. "I don't wanna turn it off!" he declared, gripping the controller. "I haven't played a new game in months!"

"We'll find a new one, Charmy," Espio told him, taking a hold on the controller. "Now just let go and…"

The bee jerked back, but his partner kept his hold. "No! _You_ let go, Espio!"

"Give it up, Charmy! Monty said the game's been tampered with!"

"I don't care!"

A game of tug-of-war ensued. Although Espio was the stronger of the two, Charmy flew up into the air, taking the chameleon with him. This caused his grip to begin to loosen. But something else happened before he completely lost hold.

"Guys, let go now!" Tails cried, his eyes wide with fright. "The game is doing something weird!"

It was indeed. The screen was constantly flashing red, and the power light on the game system had turned from green to red. Then the words "Enemies Detected" appeared on the screen, and a digital voice droned, "Signal received. Players identified as enemies. Initiating attack protocols."

"Attack protocols?" squeaked Monty.

Espio's eyes widened, but he didn't let go of the controller. Instead he reached into his right shoe with one hand and brought out a small notepad. Tossing it to Knuckles, he said, "All the clues are in there! Read every page!"

"Wha…" the echidna began. But he was cut off when the "attack protocols" did their work.

There was a sudden surge of electricity from the outlet that the TV and game system were plugged into, and it swiftly traveled from the outlet, through the cord, into the game system, through the controller's wire, and into the controller. As a result, Espio and Charmy got a rather nasty electric shock. It lasted for about three seconds, and then both of them fell to the floor in a heap, unconscious.

"_Espio! Charmy!"_ Tails yelped in horror, rushing toward the pair to check on them, but then Monty stopped him.

"Wait! You might get shocked too if you touch them!" he pointed out.

"He's right, Tails," said Knuckles, who then look at the notepad in his left hand. _So that's why Espio gave me this,_ he thought. _He must've seen something bad coming. Whatever's in here must be really important…_

The trio jumped when the screen (which had turned off because of the power surge) turned back on, but it only flashed from black to red, and an alarm noise blared from its speakers. Tails held his ears, and all three backed away from it.

"What do we do now?" the fox called out.

"We need to leave right now!" Monty replied. "We've wasted enough time already!"

"But what about _them_?" He gestured to the knocked-out Espio and Charmy.

"We're gonna hafta leave them and hope nobody finds them!"

"What the heck do you mean?" exclaimed Knux.

"There's nothing more we can do for them!"

Suddenly they heard loud banging coming from the main part of the Television and Games Room, and they ran to the doorway of their room. Shivers went down their spines when they saw the door shuddering from numerous impacts.

"Monty, is someone trying to break in here?" Tails whispered, backing away from the doorway.

Instead of answering, the Chao whirled around and flew toward another door in their room, which had gone unnoticed until now. He opened it and frantically motioned for them to go through it. Silently they obeyed, and found themselves in (you guessed it) a long, pink hallway lined with doors. But they didn't complain and waited for Monty to lock the door. Then, with the panicky guide in the lead, they raced down the corridor, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the Television and Games Room as they could…

* * *

A few minutes later, Tails, Knuckles, and Monty were worn out and forced to stop for a rest; that is, the two Mobians rested, and their guide, though weary, played the lookout. His two remaining charges let him be, hoping he would eventually settle down and tell them everything. So, to pass the time, they brought out Espio's notepad.

"What do you think is in here?" Tails whispered, staring at the notepad in his companion's hands.

Knuckles shrugged. "He said clues, so I guess it's that."

"What kind of clues?"

"Let's just open it and see."

The echidna flipped the cover up, revealing the first page. On it in Espio's handwriting were these words:

"Clue #1: Willy Wonka was supposed to take us around the factory himself, but he leaves a note telling us that we have a guide, Monty, instead. (What made him change his plans?)"

Both fox and echidna looked at each other; the so-called clues were all the strange things that had happened to them during the tour—all the things Monty couldn't (or wouldn't?) explain! Eagerly they turned to the next page.

"Clue #2: Monty knows Tails' real name and the names of the people who came with the winners. (How does he know these things?) When questioned, he acted nervous and changed the subject. (Is he hiding something? What? Why?)"

"Wow," said Knuckles, "I guess Vector isn't the only real detective in the Chaotix." He turned to the next entry.

"Clue #3: Monty claims that there are lots of Chao, yet we have only seen a few in the rooms and one large group on the boat. (Are there as many as he claims? If so, where are they?) And all the Chao sighted act nervous, as if they're afraid. (Afraid of…what? …Or afraid of whom?)"

This one really stumped the two. "Maybe it's Wonka?" Tails offered a bit hesitantly. But they both turned that option down and continued reading.

"Clue #4: On the boat made of candy, we spotted another boat, a cinnamon-red one. Monty and the other Chao panicked. (Why? Who was using that boat?)

"Clue #5: In the Nut Room, Monty said that the nut dispensers had been 'fiddled with'. (…By whom?)

"Clue #6: In the Glass Elevator, we encountered huge weapons in a tower. Monty was scared out of his wits. (Was it just the weapons that scared him? Or is there something more?)"

The next page had only one sentence, but it was what was on both of their minds.

"_Somethin' fishy is goin' on around here…but __**what?"**_

"Espio ran out of time to answer that," Knuckles mumbled, and then he looked up at Tails, his violet eyes glimmering, "…but _we_ can get the answers right now. Let's get Monty. He's hiding something from us, and it's time for him to spill it!" He stood up and began to stomp toward the corner of the hallway, where the Chao had been. "Monty!" he called. "Monty, we need to talk!"

Suddenly the little Chao rushed around the corner and covered his mouth. "Be quiet! They're here!" he whimpered. "We need to hide!"

"Hide from whom, Monty?" Tails asked.

The echidna shoved Monty off his face and demanded, "You've got to tell us now! I want to know what made you leave Espio and Charmy alone in that room!"

Poor Monty was at a loss for words; he could tell that they wouldn't budge until he said something. But he managed to think of a compromise. "I'll tell you while we're running!" Then he tugged on one of Tails' ears and urged them to follow him back the way they had come. "I know a good path, but we need to hurry before we're spotted!"

Knuckles grumbled angrily about the change in subject, but relented and followed Monty, as did Tails. When they had turned another corner and were on a new path, their guide kept his side of the bargain.

"You see, Master Wonka had plans to meet all of you at the stage; he really wanted to, trust me. But things have been really bad lately, and he couldn't make it, so he had to send me. He told me it was still way too dangerous for him to show himself."

"Too dangerous?" exclaimed Tails.

"Yeah. He's, uh, had to, uh…go into hiding. It's pretty easy to do in a big factory like this. Even I don't know where he is."

"Who's he hiding from?"

Monty suddenly slowed down, and Tails and Knuckles went past him. They turned around and saw that familiar frightened, _hunted_ look on his face. He looked at them, bit his lip, opened his mouth, and answered slowly, his voice quivering with fear.

"…_The usurper."_

"The what?" Knuckles cried, completely confused.

He blushed and shrugged. "That's what he called himself once."

Tails, however, knew what the word meant. "…Someone else has taken control of the factory, Monty?"

Ever so slowly, the Chao guide lowered his head and nodded.

"Do you know why?"

There was a shake of the head. "Master doesn't know either, but he said he can't be up to any good." Then he looked back the way they had come, and turned back and said, "Can we hide now?"

Tails nodded, and Monty flew swiftly past them, sighing in relief. Knuckles walked in the rear with folded arms and his lips in a tight line. He didn't think that was all Monty knew, but he wouldn't bug him about it until they were safe somewhere. The two Mobians walked slowly so they could digest this new information. Monty didn't notice and continued around another corner at the same speed…

"_Eeeeeekkk!"_

Tails and Knuckles jumped a foot in the air at Monty's scream, and the former raced for the corner. He went around it, opening his mouth to call Monty…and then suddenly froze and became as stiff as board, including his namesakes. His sky-blue eyes widened, his heart leaped into his throat, and his fur, especially on his neck, stood straight up. He lost his voice, and could only stare at the shocking sight before him.

Knuckles, a little freaked out by the boy's reaction, ran toward him, wondering what he was seeing. He got his answer as he too rounded the corner, and he found himself almost as numbed by the sheer surprise of it as Tails. _Holy cow,_ he thought to himself.

Monty was trapped in the cold, metallic clutches of _**Metal Sonic!

* * *

**_**Author's Notes:** The plot thickens! (evil laugh) Mwaahahahahaaa! We'll learn more about "the usurper" in the next chapter!

By the way, did anybody notice the little Sonic-game in-jokes I stuck in there? "Awful loading times, physics glitches," etc.? That was just for a little humor. Believe me, I _love _the games, no matter how faulty they are. You're too serious if you can't laugh at yourself; know what I mean? (wink)


	17. The Usurper

Chapter #16: The Usurper

"_Mecha!"_ Tails blurted without thinking. "What are _you_ doing here?"

The robotic hedgehog whirled to face the two Mobians, noticing them for the first time. "It's none of your business, foxboy," he growled, holding up a fist. "I won't attack you and your friend this time, but I _will_ if you interfere anymore." Then he turned and darted down the corridor, gripping the frightened Monty in one hand.

Tails and Knuckles exchanged glances, both trying to decide whether or not to pursue Metal Sonic. A cry from Monty spurred them into action, and they both rushed forward. They rounded one bend and saw him, but their enemy heard them and activated the engine in his chest. He was out of sight in only five seconds.

Knuckles groaned. "Perfect, just perfect!" he said. "We're lost in a huge chocolate factory, and our guide has been captured by an evil robot! It can't possibly get any worse than this!"

Tails slowed down and looked at him, his eyes widening in realization. "Knuckles, hold on a minute. I just hit on something."

"What?" he snapped.

"I don't think it's just Metal Sonic here in the factory."

"You mean Egg Pawns? Yeah, sure, expect a few; Mecha used them the last time he rebelled."

"Not just them; think about it! Mecha is a robot; he uses logic. To him, this place is just a bunch of nonsense with no practical use for him. He has no good reason to take over this factory. But maybe…just maybe…"

He looked at the echidna with a serious, slightly angry expression.

"…_Maybe __**Eggman**__ would."_

Knuckles immediately came to attention. "Eggman? You think _he's_ behind all this?"

"Why not? Doesn't it make sense? He's dangerous and scary enough for Mr. Wonka and the Chao workers to go into hiding and be terrified of him. He could have taken control of some of the ships like the _Sweet-tooth_, fiddled with both the nut dispensers and the Wonka video game, and installed all those weapons in that tower we went through in the Great Glass Elevator!"

"I'll grant you that, but what the heck would he want with a chocolate factory?"

"That's the only thing I'm not sure about. But…" A small, determined smile slipped across his face. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna find out what."

Knuckles grimaced. The smile looked much like Sonic's; the boy was picking up on his habits, perhaps a little too much to his liking. He hoped that the habit of getting into big trouble wasn't one of them. _We don't have that crazy hedgehog to get us out of a big mess this time; I won't like it, but I'd better stick close to the kid so we don't get caught or something._

Suddenly the pair heard the loud noise of marching footsteps. They tossed knowing glances to one another; the sound was very familiar. They quickly rounded a corner (they were at an intersection) and flattened themselves against the wall, hoping that they had chosen the right fork to hide in.

Only a few seconds passed, and then the noise became louder. The fox and echidna held their breath as the source—a group of 12 standard, reddish-orange Egg Pawns, lined up in three columns four robots long—marched past them, continuing forward. They failed to see the two Mobians, who waited for about ten seconds before following after them. There was no need for them to communicate with one another; both were thinking the same thing.

In all likelihood, the Pawns were headed to the place in the Wonka factory where their master had set up shop. Perhaps that was where Metal Sonic had also taken Monty.

Luckily, they were right. The robots turned a few corners and came to a steel door with the words "CAMERA ROOM" on it. The door went up, revealing a room similar to the Television and Games Room—dark, but with many monitors on the walls that changed every so often. These screens were actually the feeds from cameras positioned all over the factory. A gigantic desk cluttered with computer monitors, keyboards, and clusters of buttons was under them, and in front of that was a large chair that bore some resemblance to a throne.

While Tails and Knuckles sneaked into the room and hid behind a stack of crates piled near the entrance, the Egg Pawns stopped two yards from the chair and saluted simultaneously. Then one droned, "Search of Quadrant A completed, Master."

A familiar voice growled from the chair, "Results?"

"No life-form matching description of Primary Target."

A large fist slammed on one arm of the chair. "Blast it all! Where is that annoying 'chocolatier'?"

The chair swiveled around, and a switch was flipped on, bathing the chair in soft, yellow light. This was enough for the two eavesdroppers to see that the person in the chair was indeed their scheming enemy: the infamous Dr. Eggman.

For this round of an attempt of world conquest (what else could he be doing?), Eggman had taken on a new outfit, only retaining his bluish-purple glasses. Now he wore a purple tailcoat, bottle-green pants, a black top hat, and trimmer, shinier shoes than his normal ones; he also wielded a gold-tipped cane. This was obviously the standard Willy Wonka outfit, but Tails and Knuckles could see no appeal in it at all. His glasses, nose, and mustache didn't go well with it, and the top hat and green bowtie looked out of place, not to mention that the tailcoat looked like it barely fit on his body. All in all, the doctor looked absolutely revolting, even more than he did in his regular get-up.

"I don't understand how Wonka always manages to escape my traps!" he exclaimed angrily, going into a tantrum. "Even when I draw the nets tighter, he slips through! How can he know what I'm planning? How _can_ he?"

"It is an example of 'know thy enemy', Master."

Eggman's mood was hardly affected by the newcomer. "Oh, what do _you_ know about it, Mecha?"

Metal Sonic, who had quietly entered through one of the side doors to the Camera Room, stepped closer. "You have been in control of this factory for several months, Master Eggman, and have learned the workers' habits. It is only natural to conclude, then, that the workers and their master have learned ours as well, and have adapted to the changes."

Inwardly Eggman marveled at the robotic hedgehog's logic, but accredited it to his work on him rather than Mecha's ability to learn and comprehend. And he continued to scoff and rant.

"There has to be some way to flush him out, to get what I want from him, to _trap_ him!"

"Permission to make a suggestion, Master."

He grimaced and waved a hand carelessly. "Yes, yes, go ahead."

"Why not threaten to harm his workers? After all, I have observed how organics behave around the creatures called 'Chao'; they care if they come to harm. I doubt Wonka would be an exception."

The doctor's frown deepened. "I already tried that. He did react…by _rescuing them!"_

"…Then perhaps you are, how should I put it…approaching from the wrong angle?"

He whirled around and asked in a dangerously low tone of voice, "Are you accusing me of bungling my own traps, Mecha?"

Metal stared back, unfazed by the subtle threat; both knew he was the more dangerous of the two. "Perhaps," he replied. "But that is beside the point. I have a new angle you can try; I captured the one you believe to be Wonka's favorite Chao."

Immediately Eggman brightened. "Really now? Where is he?"

"I placed him in the containment center with the Mobians."

Tails gasped. "Knuckles, they've got the others!"

"I know, I know," grumbled Knux. "Now keep your voice down, or they'll hear us."

Eggman continued, "I want you to bring him in here as soon as possible. He might be able to answer some of my questions."

"He is not the only discovery I happened upon," Mecha said.

"What do you mean?"

"I ran into the foxboy and the Guardian; the Chao was leading them, I believe."

The evil genius's eyebrows rose. "Well, well, well! Tails and Knuckles! Now I remember; they were the last winners of that silly contest Wonka sent out!"

"So were the others."

"…By the way, did you see anyone else? Or did they happen to mention…you-know-who?"

Metal Sonic's red eyes glowed much brighter. "You mean…The Hedgehog?" he snarled. "…No, there was no sign of him."

He frowned. "That's odd. Where the foxboy is, _he_ is usually close by. But we should keep a lookout for him anyway; I already have Wonka being a nuisance. I don't need my regular one interfering. Did you capture them as well?"

"…Negative; I let them go."  
_"What?"_

"A mistake, I admit," the robotic hedgehog said, though very reluctantly. "In hindsight, I realize that they can cause almost as much trouble as…" His voice faded into a growl that could only refer to his organic counterpart.

"Well, then, _find them!"_ the doctor barked. "I don't need them meddling in my affairs, either!"

Mecha nodded and walked toward the main door, and then, without warning, stopped and turned his head sharply, his eyes lighting up again.

"Mecha? What now?" Eggman grunted impatiently.

He suddenly lunged to the right behind a certain stack of crates with a digital growl, and the sounds of an intense fight could be heard. Moments later, he reappeared, dragging a stunned Knuckles behind him with one hand and gripping a whimpering Tails by the scruff of his neck in the other.

"Found them, Master," he said. Eggman could almost imagine him grinning triumphantly over his catch.

The doctor himself smiled gleefully and said, "Well done, Mecha." Then he bent over slightly and spoke to his new captives. "Long time no see, my old friends. It's quite a pleasant surprise." Then his face contorted into an evil grin. "But I'm afraid this next phase of your little tour won't be so pleasant." Then, to his Egg Pawns, "Escort Mecha and these two intruders to the containment center."

With a salute, the Pawns formed a box around Metal Sonic, who continued to hold the two Mobians, and they marched out of the Control Room through another side door. Tails didn't struggle, too terrified by this horrible twist in events. Knuckles, who had come to his senses, simply folded his arms in a pout and allowed himself to be dragged by his leg, glaring at his captors all the while.

_Boy, was I stupid,_ he thought._ I said things can't possibly get worse…and they did.

* * *

_

Eggman's containment center (or prison, if you like) was really just a relatively small storage room; it had once held Wonka's precious secret recipes in 16 large vaults, which were opened by a card key. But the sensible chocolate-maker had spirited away the documents, leaving Eggman to use the vaults as he pleased. It had taken several weeks for him to turn them into prison cells, but the results greatly satisfied him. The card key devices now used a set of card keys he had made. To make sure any living thing put inside would be able to breathe, he had cut an opening in each of their tops and installed a small ventilation system. He had also cut two openings in the doors, to make sliding panels for opening and closing—one for a person to look inside the cell, and the other to send food through.

Tails and Knuckles found themselves locked up in one of these cold, cheerless vaults, and with hardly any room to move. However, they didn't say a word in front of Mecha or the Pawns. They simply waited until they knew for sure they had left. Then the fox went up to the sliding panel near the top of the door and attempted to get it open. It took some work, since the panel was smooth and the only handle was on the other side, but he got it open a crack. The opening was a bit high for him, so he stood on the tips of his toes to take a peek.

Unfortunately, he didn't have that great a view of the rest of the cells, much less whom they contained; the panels were all closed. And it was very quiet…but not for long. A number of voices echoed from the vaults, one after another.

"This is boring! I wanna play that video game again!"

A female voice snapped, "Oh shut up, you little twerp!"

"Amy, I want to go home now."

"Chao chao…"

"Me and Froggy too…"

A third female voice whimpered, "I wish Sonic was here; he'd know what to do."

"He's missing, so too bad for you," growled a low, male voice. "Now grow a spine and live with it."

"Knock it off, Mr. Sunshine," a similar one retorted sarcastically. "We don't need you making it worse."

_So, _the fox thought, _Eggman has them all in here. But…what about Monty? I haven't heard his voice yet._ Then he decided it was time to join the conversation. He opened the panel as far as he could and called, "Guys! Is everybody okay?"

"Tails!" Amy and Cream exclaimed, and Cheese gave his own cry of joy. Tails judged by their voices that they were in the cell across from his and Knuckles'.

"So they caught you too, foxboy?" Rouge asked. "And Knucklehead?"

Knuckles, who had been sitting in one corner of their cell, angrily stood up and banged on the right side of it with his fists; Rouge and Shadow were in the vault next to them. The bat chuckled and added, "I'll take that as a yes."

"How did everyone get caught?" Tails cut in. Many of the group answered at once, some louder than others, and it was hard to make out what each of them said. But he managed to get sketchy accounts from each of them.

The pipe Big had been sucked into had indeed led to the Fudge Room. Luckily for him, the workers had gotten him out of one of the vats before any serious damage had been done. But a patrol of Egg Pawns had found him soon afterward.

Amy and Cream's story was similar. They had never made it to the infirmary; a candy boat manned by Egg Pawns (the one Tails had spotted on their boat cruise) had found them on a walkway not far from the Inventing Room. Cream had bravely told the Chao workers to fly away and leave them behind, which they had reluctantly done.

Shadow and Rouge had fallen down through the garbage chute and into the incinerator room. But, like one Chao had told Monty, the incinerator wasn't operating, so they had landed in a vat of garbage. A band of Egg Pawns working the machinery had found them and overpowered them.

And last but not least, Charmy and Espio had simply awakened inside their cell; they had still been out cold when the Pawns had found them in the Television and Games Room. Satisfied with these accounts, Tails asked another question.

"Has anyone heard Monty? Metal Sonic brought him here."

The answer was a unanimous "no". If the guide Chao had been brought into the prison at all, he had not made a sound. Amy and Cream began calling Monty's name, hoping he would answer. Tails was about to join them when he saw the some of the locks on the storage room door turning.

"Guys, someone's coming!" he whispered loudly.

The prison block was silent in an instant; the gang of Mobians held their breath, waiting for the person to enter. They listened as the door opened with a metallic creak, and Tails ducked down from the panel opening to avoid being seen. He could feel his heart beating inside his chest, and his mind raced with questions and fears.

Who was coming inside the prison block? What did he want? …Or _whom_ did he want?

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Okay, here's where one of the big changes comes in. Those who read the older version will remember that there was _much _more to this chapter before. For this second run, I split the older chapter into two chapters instead. So read on!

...And if you're new to this story and wondering who just entered the prison, it's not the person you might think it is... (secretive grin)


	18. A New Challenge

**Author's Note:** Out of all the chapters in Part II, I would say that this one got the biggest overhaul. The first half or so of it looks pretty much the same, but I changed the ending around a little bit. You'll see what I mean when you read it all the way through.

* * *

Chapter #17: A New Challenge

As the doors to the room slowly swung shut again, the improvised prison was deathly still. No one moved inside their cells, and each Mobian carefully controlled their breath, straining their ears for any sound. None of them dared to look through the peepholes to see who…or what…had entered the room.

In those seconds of tense silence, Tails formed a theory, using what he had learned from eavesdropping in the Camera Room. Perhaps Metal Sonic was coming back for Monty to bring him to Eggman for questioning. But he wasn't quite sure Monty was in one of the cells; no one had seen or heard him. What if he was hurt?

His inner thoughts were cut short when the sound of footsteps echoed in the room. The fox lifted his head and listened carefully; then his face formed a puzzled frown.

The footsteps weren't Mecha's. If they were, they would be making much louder noise against the floor of metal. They sounded…like normal shoes…

The mystery person didn't speak at all as he headed down the prison block, and Tails didn't dare take a peek at him. The footsteps stopped a few cells down from the one the fox and echidna occupied, and the boy managed to hear a voice mutter in the lowest of tones, "Cell 6…this is the one." Then there were more sounds: the swish of a card being swiped through a slot, a computer beep confirming the card key's authenticity, and a vault's locks moving.

"Hey! Who are _you?"_ exclaimed a familiar voice. Tails breathed a sigh of relief; it was Monty, and he sounded okay. But he scrunched up his nose in confusion when he realized the meaning of the Chao's words.

Someone Monty didn't know was in the factory.

The stranger answered, again using a low tone. "A friend. Is everybody else in here?"

"Yeah. Your card should open all the vaults."

"Who's in what cell?"

Gathering up his courage, Tails took a breath and called out, "Over here! We're in Cell 2!"

The person walked up the row to the cell, but Monty reached it first. He appeared in front of the opening and greeted them, "Hi, guys! The new guy will have you out in a jiffy!"

Knuckles folded his arms. "He'd better."

The card key was swiped through, and the door opened. The question "Who are you?" died on their lips, and their eyes widened in surprise.

Monty might not have known this person at first…but they did.

"_Vector!"_ cried Tails.

The crocodile grinned and held up his hands. "Guilty as charged," he replied.

Knuckles immediately bombarded him with questions. "What the heck are _you_ doing here? How'd you get in? Are you working with Wonka or something?"

"Whoa, whoa, one question at a time!" Vector said, backing up a step. "Let's free the others and I'll tell ya everything."

The small group winced at the sound of Charmy banging on his cell and shrieking happily, "Vector, Vector, Vector! Let us out!"

"Good idea," the echidna muttered.

By then, all of the others had begun to raise a ruckus about Vector's appearance, and were impatient to be let out of their cells. He decided to start with the cell opposite and to the left of Tails and Knuckles' vault. They found Big inside, and were shocked by the unexpected change in his appearance.

Big was suddenly not so big. He was still tall, but he had lost a tremendous amount of weight, resulting in a thin figure—probably from being so tightly squeezed in the chocolate pipes and mixed around in a hot vat. He was also covered from head to toe in sticky fudge, and he was constantly trying to lick it off himself, since he had no towel (besides, he's a cat). Instead of being close by his friend, Froggy was in one corner of the vault; he had no intention of touching the fudge.

The fudge-covered feline looked up from his "bath" and grinned sheepishly. "This stuff just won't come out," he complained. He turned back to licking his left arm, mumbling, "I don't think I like chocolate anymore…"

Tails and Knuckles exchanged surprised looks. From the sounds of it, Big had been cured of his gluttony.

Vector moved on to the next cell, which contained Amy, Cream, and Cheese. The rabbit and Chao looked perfectly fine, and were polite enough to offer a grateful bow to the crocodile.

But Amy was another story.

"Amy! You're _blue!"_ Tails yelped.

The once-pink hedgehog folded her arms in a pout and snapped, "I noticed, Tails."

Like Monty had predicted, the Emotion Gum Amy had chewed had stuck on a color—cobalt blue. But, for some reason, her face would still change colors according to her emotions. Currently, she was a light, upset red.

"It really doesn't look that bad, Amy," Cream said, trying to be optimistic and get her friend to smile. But her words didn't seem to help; Amy didn't change her attitude.

Suddenly everyone became aware of a horrible smell in the air, and they turned around and saw the source: Vector had let out Rouge and Shadow, who were covered in garbage. Both wore sour expressions, apparently not enjoying their get-up any more than the others.

"Phew, anybody got some air freshener?" Monty remarked, covering his nose. (Or at least, the part of his face where a nose would be.)

"Shut up," Shadow snarled, tensing into an attack posture. Monty squealed in fright and hid behind Tails.

And the other two Chaotix were once again last. They appeared to be just fine when they first walked out of their cell; but soon symptoms of their electric shock from the sabotaged video game presented themselves. Charmy tried to fly, but found that if he moved too quickly, he would lose his sense of balance and usually end up flying straight into the ground; after five tries, he gave up and stood still on his feet. Espio swayed on his feet, also a little dizzy, not to mention suffering from a horrible headache. But the most outstanding symptom was that when they got too close to each other, a bolt of static electricity flashed between them and shocked them.

"What happened, boyz?" Vector asked, very puzzled by their behavior.

"Got shocked by a stupid video game," Espio replied, shooting daggers at the bee. Then he turned to his so-called boss. "Now why are you here? You're supposed to be working on a case!"

The croc replied, "This _is_ my case, Esp! It's a bit of a long story…" He looked at everyone and saw that they all had their eyes on him. "…But I guess I should explain anyway." And so he began.

The day before Charmy had won one of the Golden Tickets, Vector had gotten a call from the President, who claimed he needed someone with knowledge of Eggman and some police skills for a task. Sweet Treats, Inc., a candy-making company, had considered selling one of their factories, and Eggman had approached them with an offer for it about four months ago. The doctor had asked if he could actually make their brand of candy for them; all they had to do was supply him with the right ingredients, and in return, he would pay his own bills and not ask for a penny. They had turned him down, finding the whole deal fishy, and they didn't hear from him again. They had also reported this strange encounter to GUN, but the organization hadn't investigated.

A month after the incident, GUN had learned that other factories had received the same offers from the same person, and that got their attention. They had later discovered that the only big chocolate company that hasn't had this happen was Willy Wonka's. They sent some messages to the factory, just to see if the same thing had happened, but they haven't gotten a response.

"That spooked 'em into calling and asking me to sneak inside and get some answers," he finished. "They know Egghead's reputation, so they were afraid that the factory had been taken over."

"And it has!" Charmy exclaimed.

"But how did you get in here, Vector?" Monty asked.

"Simple: I hitched a ride on a delivery truck going back to the factory. I'm surprised nobody saw me sneak in through the service entrance. Problem is, I can't get out now; Eggman increased his security. I've been hiding out in this place ever since."

Knuckles whistled. "That's almost a month."

"But wait!" Monty interjected again. "I never knew you were ever here! I mean, that is possible, since this place is so big. But still, somebody should have found out you were here!"

"Of course; Willy Wonka did."

"Eh?"

"You've met him?" gasped Cream.

Vector shook his head. "Not in person. He sends some of the Chao to take me to the safest places, or he leaves notes. That's how I found out that you guys were locked up in here—he left me a note and a card key to free you." Then he turned to the guide Chao and said, "Now it's your turn, Monty. Start from the beginning."

For a moment, Monty stammered and sweated nervously, but then he saw all the faces now fixed on him. It was time for him to tell the truth. He took a deep breath, and then he began.

"It all happened around three months ago, two months after Master Wonka brought us here to the factory. We had gotten the hang of working here by then, and had explored every nook and cranny. We sent out our first shipment of chocolate and candy (which also had the Golden Tickets in it), and we had a celebration. But the next day, some of the trucks came back, and they had cargo: robots. They began taking over the factory, and we were so surprised we didn't do anything to stop them. They caught many of us and locked us away in cages."

Just like when he had explained the workers' back-story, Cream interrupted. She shivered and held Cheese close to her, whimpering, "That's horrible."

Monty nodded solemnly. "Master and I managed to escape into this very storage room, and they didn't find us for two whole days. We used that time to get all the secret recipes from the vaults and hide them somewhere else. Master said he didn't know what Eggman wanted with the factory, but he didn't want to let the formulas fall into his hands."

"So you had no idea that the Doc had talked with rival factories?" questioned Vector.

"No. We aren't connected very much to the outside world—just the mailbox and the trucks. We have phones, but they're hard to find, and Eggman probably has them, uh…what was the word? 'Tapped'? Anyway, Master Wonka and I got away and hid the secret recipes, and then we tried to rescue the other Chao. We did save most of them, but Eggman is forcing some to make chocolate for him."

"How many are there, and where are they?" asked Espio.

"Umm…there are hundreds of us; I'm not sure of the exact number. Eggman has about sixty working for him, and the rest are just hiding. There are _lots_ of hiding places here! And some secret tunnels too! That's how we get around without being seen."

Suddenly he got an apologetic look on his face, and he looked at each Mobian in turn.

"Um, look, I know a lot of weird things happened on our tour, and I didn't explain them to you because I was scared. Eggman has cameras all over the place, and he could have easily overheard me telling you some of the factory's secrets. I feel safe now, because I know he hasn't put any in here yet. So let me explain.

"Dr. Eggman has taken over a lot of the factory and has many of Master Wonka's inventions, including a fleet of ships like the _Sweet-tooth_; he has most of them colored cinnamon red. That's what you saw on the river: one of his boats. He has control of many of the rooms we visited, like the Nut Room and the Television and Games Room. That's why the nut dispensers and the video game acted strange; Eggman toyed with them. Now that I think about it, I think the character Charmy played as in the game was that Metal Sonic guy; he wears black when he goes outside, and he likes weapons."

"Speaking of weapons," Knuckles cut in, "what about that tower full of weapons we went through in the Great Glass Elevator? Does Eggman have that place too?"

"A glass elevator?" said Rouge. "Shadow, get me—"

Before she could finish, the black hedgehog whirled around and growled, _"No!"_ Seeing the dangerous gleam in his crimson eyes, the bat shut her mouth.

After waiting for the two to calm down, Monty answered, "Yeah, he does have that place. I totally forgot we had to go through there to get to the Television and Games Room."

Tails scratched his chin in thought; many of the theories he had made before were turning out to be correct. Then he inquired, "What about the Inventing Room, Monty? Does Eggman have control of it, too?"

"No, not that one, thank goodness," came the reply. "That's why I said it was the perfect stop for the boat cruise—Master Wonka has that place locked up tight."

Then Shadow spoke. "There's one thing I just don't get." Everyone looked at him. "Why would the Doctor want this place?"

Monty gave an embarrassed grin and shrugged. "Well, that's just it; we don't know. He hasn't really given us any clues. But Master Wonka is sure he's going to use the factory to take over the world. It's how that stumps us." Then his face lit up, and he smiled at all of the Mobians. "But now we have a fighting chance, because you guys are here!"

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"You've all beaten Eggman before, right? You can take him on and stop him!" Clasping his hands together, he gave each of them his best "puppy-dog eyes". "Please, will you help us?"

The gang of Mobians looked slowly and carefully at one another. Cream, Cheese, and Charmy wore fearful looks, and Amy's face was white. Rouge, Shadow, and Espio were frowning and folding their arms, unhappy with the whole mess. Vector and Knuckles wore grim expressions; both were thinking of the dangers and odds stacked against them. Big, Froggy, and Charmy looked back and forth between everyone else, uncertain about what to think.

But then a confident voice rose up from among them.

"We'll do it, Monty."

All eyes immediately fell on Tails. He stood straight and tall, with fists clenched. His mouth was set in a firm line, and a resolute fire burned in his sky-blue eyes.

Rouge glared at him and snapped, "Speak for yourself, foxboy."

But the young fox turned a similar look right back on her. "If you want to get out of here, Rouge, then you'd better help. You heard Vector: we can't leave until Eggman is taken down."

She opened her mouth to retort, but Shadow suddenly gripped her shoulder. Showing more spine than he had in a while, he met her scowl and said, "He's right. We have to help—whether you want it or not." The white bat lowered her head and said nothing more.

Tails looked at each of his companions, as he said, "I know this isn't what we expected when we came to this factory. But we can't let Eggman ruin Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, or get away with whatever it is he's planning! Mr. Wonka and all the Chao are counting on _us_ to help! I don't want to let them down! I won't! I'm going to fight back!" He thrust out his hand into the center of their circle. "Who's with me?"

Everyone looked at each other again, but this time, the same spark that burned in his eyes was flickering in many of theirs. His miniature speech had awakened their fighting spirit. No one else would come and free the chocolate factory; they were all Mr. Wonka had.

The first to put his hand down on top of Tails' was Knuckles. His purple eyes met the sky-blue ones of his young charge, and he smiled. "I'm with you all the way, Tails."

Vector's whole muzzle split into a toothy grin, and he decisively placed his large hand over the echidna's fist. "You can count the Chaotix in!" he declared. Charmy whooped and spun in the air, and Espio rolled his eyes and grunted his consent.

Team Rose was quick to follow. For the first time since the gum incident, Amy was cheerful and eager; her face beaming a golden color with happiness, she added her hand to the stack. "Count us in too!" Cream and Cheese cheered, and Big shouted, "Hurray!" (Froggy even croaked and hopped up and down.)

Rouge, still sore over being overruled, stayed out of the circle. But Shadow came forward, wearing one of his rare grins; he put his hand on top and nodded to Tails. "Looks like you've got a team, foxboy," he said in a smooth tone.

Tails stood up even straighter, and a smile spread across his face. He hadn't meant to take charge of the situation; but now all his friends, and Monty too, were looking to him, all because he hadn't hesitated in the face of the new challenge in front of them. The fervent spark in his eyes grew even brighter, and he added his other hand to the stack. The smile transformed into a determined smirk.

"Then let's show Eggman he picked the wrong factory to mess with!" he declared, his voice ringing with resolve.

Suddenly, in that thrilling moment, all his friends, Knuckles especially, recognized the smirk on his face, the confidence in his voice, and the fire in his eyes: they had come from their original leader, Sonic himself. Never before had the sidekick looked so much like his mentor. And it encouraged them; if Tails believed they could win, so did they.

Monty picked up on the electricity in the air, as well. With a huge grin and wide blue eyes, he pressed his paws down on the hand-stack. The whole group then threw their hands up, and he soared up with them, squealing and yelling.

"Yeah! Let's do this thing!"

But then a low, scornful, sarcastic voice interrupted their pep talk. "I hate to burst your bubble, but you've got one little problem."

Everyone turned and looked at Rouge, who was still scowling.

"How are we supposed to fight Eggy if he's got us locked in this room?" she asked, a smug grin forming on her face.

The gang of heroes stopped and blinked, feeling a little foolish. They hadn't thought of that. But Monty was hardly fazed by her remarks, and he had a very good reason.

"Actually, we aren't as trapped as you think!" he said. "Remember what I said about secret tunnels in the factory? There's one in here too; it's at the end of the cell block! We can use it to get out of here!"

Tails said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Monty took off flying down the cell block, with the crowd of Mobians running (some of them also flying) right behind him. They reached the end in no time, and he led them behind some rusted vaults and stacks of old crates. Hidden by the piles of junk was some sort of circular hatch on the floor. But when some of the boys tried to turn the rusty wheel or pull it up, it didn't budge. They gave up wearily, and Monty moved forward, snickering. Instead of turning the wheel, he pressed the middle of it, which was actually a secret button. A panel in the side of the hatch opened, revealing another button. When it was pressed, the hatch clicked open and lifted upwards. The gang found themselves staring at the entrance of a tunnel made of plates of aluminum that went down at an angle; it was roughly big enough to fit even Vector.

"We're supposed to go down _there_?" Amy said, backing away fearfully; her face changed to white for a moment, and then went to stubborn burgundy red. "No way!"

"Would you rather stay here and wait for Eggman or Metal Sonic?" Knuckles retorted.

"Well, no…"

Suddenly Vector, who had been keeping his eye on the prison door for some time, froze and interrupted the conversation. "And speaking of them, I think some robots are comin' back!"

The group whirled around to face the door, and many of them heard the marching footsteps of the approaching Egg Pawn squad. "They're probably coming to take Monty for questioning," said Tails.

The light-blue Chao's eyes widened until they were bulging. "Then we're outta time to argue! We've gotta go now!" With no warning, he backed up and slammed into Amy's back, shoving over the edge and down into the tunnel. Its walls echoed with her scream of fright.

No one else liked the idea of being around when the robots entered the prison room, either. Cream cried, "Wait up, Amy!" before leaping in after her with Cheese in her lap.

"Me too!" said Big, who followed the rabbit's example and did a cannonball in while holding Froggy.

"This is crazy," Espio muttered, but he didn't refuse to go. Instead, he grabbed Charmy and jumped in as well; the bee let out a whoop of excitement as he went down. Vector followed soon after.

"I've learned my lesson about tunnels!" Rouge yelled, stamping her foot. "I'm not going in there, and you can't make me!"

Shadow gripped her arm and fixed her with a fierce glare. "Just watch me," he snapped. Then, before she could react, he also took the jump, bringing her, flailing and screaming, with him.

The last three were Tails, Knuckles, and Monty. The echidna stepped up and bent over to see how far down it went, but he couldn't see much. "I don't know about this…" he began.

At the other end of the room, the doors swung open, and in marched the Egg Pawns. Monty spotted them when he peeked out from behind the top of a stack of crates. "They're here!" he whispered. "Hurry!"

Sucking in a deep breath, Knuckles jumped and fell, feet first, into the tunnel. The light-blue Chao and Tails went down at the same time, the former crying "Tallyho!" and the latter yelling, "Geronimo!" When he jumped, Monty also grabbed a handle on the inside the hatch, closing and locking it as he and the fox went down. (When the Egg Pawns searched the room for the escapees, they didn't discover the secret hatch.)

And so the gang of Mobians and their guide slid down a dark tunnel into the unknown, and into a new adventure…

_End of Part II  
_

* * *

**Author's Notes:** That's right, everybody, Part II is done! Part III is going to cover the new plotline involving Dr. Eggman's invasion of the chocolate factory. But I'll bet a lot of you have some questions...

1) "Hold up a minute! The story goes that the special grand prize for the Golden Ticket contest is the entire factory, because Mr. Wonka is looking for an heir. What happened to that?" That originally was in the final chapter of Part II, but I took it out because it didn't seem relevant or fitting to mention at the time. Don't worry, though, I'm getting there. Monty will explain everything, all in due time.

2) "Where's Mr. Wonka?" In a few words, waiting in the wings! Hee hee hee! Don't worry, we'll get to meet him!

3) "Is Part III ready yet? I want to read more!" Unfortunately, no, it isn't. I'm still gathering up my ideas for it. I had hoped to maybe have some of it ready by the time this anniversary came around, but it didn't happen. I'm sorry. (hangs head) You'll just have to bear with me here and wait on it.

So, for now, this concludes my revision of _Tails and the Chocolate Factory_! I hope the new (and updated) chapters were satisfactory! As before, I can't really tell you when I'll have chapters for Part III ready. But, if fate allows, I will continue this story to the end! (hops on hoverbike and drives away)(end credits from _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ movie play)


End file.
